First post ever, and first post of 2010

Well, I guess I have been inspired over this last weekend - first by watching Julie and Julia, and by reading an article in the USA today newspaper insert. You can probably guess the inspiration I got from the movie - that blogging is a way to share with people in a way that is both interesting for the reader, and a release and learning experience for the writer. My second inspiration was from the article about the two actors from The Big Bang Theory - the girl (I'm allowed to say girl, because I learned that she is 4 years younger than me!) that lives next door to the roomates, Kaley Cuoco. It really struck me when she was talking about her weight management and how it is a battle everyday. It's so easy for me to look at skinny people and believe that they have always been skinny, that they can eat whatever they want and only exercise for fun, not for weight loss. It's even easier for me to believe this about actors, because they always seem so perfect.
I started to feel the similarities between the two of us as I read about her life growing up in relationship to health. She described a family that focused on healthier eating and being active - just like mine. She then began to describe that she has to work to maintain her weight by making healthy choices and exercising consistently and it hit me when she said that it was an "everyday battle." Those have been my exact words about maintaining my weight since I lost it over the last few years.
Now that I'm on the "skinny" side, people that didn't know me 10 years ago (everyone I know where I currently live) think that I've always been this way and I should be able to eat whatever I want. They constantly try to push bad food on me and tell me that I can eat anything because I exercise. I just want to yell at them to stop! They have no idea how hard I have to fight daily to keep my weight down. The hardest part has been with my newest coworkers - one of them is able to eat absolutely everything - her favorite food is anything from McDonalds - especially french fries and big macs. She maintains a weight of about 105, doesn't exercise much and drinks a ton of beer. She is always bringing poor food into my workplace and offers it too me and can't understand how I can exercise over 1 hour/day and not be able to eat whatever I want. The other coworker eats fast food for every meal and though she's not 105 lbs, she is small and maintains that weight despite her food choices and lack of exercise. I keep telling myself that "I am healthier overall because of my healthy food choices and cardiovascular health," but that definitely doesn't help the everyday want to eat with them and enjoy all foods like they do.
Wow, I feel much better after that little rant - I guess that's part of this whole blog experience!