I wish people would not assume that I don’t understand nutrition.  I get it.  I know how it works and how important it is.  I even understand a whole lot about how it’s supposed to work together with other parts of fitness and living a healthy lifestyle.  That I’m not very good at it is not an indication that I don’t understand it.  It just means that I’m not very good at it.  I like egg nog.  And bread.  And juice.  But I’m not going out and having sausages for breakfast, burgers and fries for lunch, and ice cream for dinner.  I’m not downing 2 liters of soda a day.  I’m not having chocolate milk for breakfast.  I’m eating oatmeal and salads and things that are healthy.  I’m just not doing everything quite like I should be.

I wish people would not assume that what worked for you is going to work for me.  If pilates did it for you, I’m happy for you.  If nothing but broccoli and squash worked for you, I’m tickled for you.  But it doesn’t do it for me.  So please stop trying to make it so.

I wish people would not talk about how they’re so heavy and so awful-looking and have so much work to do before they can get skinny.  I’m almost 100 pounds overweight.  If you, at 15 pounds, have a lot to do, it makes me feel like a whale.  And it makes me feel like you all are looking at me like I’m a lazy, ugly, slob.  Even if that’s not at all what you’re trying to do, it’s how it seems from my end.

I wish people would understand that it’s not that I just didn’t notice the weight coming on.  It’s that there were too many other things that were more important or more interesting.  And those other things haven’t gone away.  So if I’m paying more attention now, it’s not that I wasn’t paying any attention before.

I wish people would not assume that all I want to talk about with you is weight, fitness, and food.  Yeah, I’m doing this.  Yeah, I’m thinking about it a lot.  But it’s a long, frustrating journey and I’m failing to even make a solid start.  When I’m not so sensitive about it, then I’ll be happy to chat about what’s working and not working for you and me.  But please, can we talk about something else?

I wish people would say “Of course you can!” instead of “You’re doing what?”

I wish people would share healthy recipes.

I wish I knew how to say all this without upsetting anyone.