You used to be a Fatty!

When I first started losing weight (back in '03), I went from 255 lbs to around 180. I've been going to my in-laws' Hindu Temple (for Divali, New Years, various festivals) on and off for 10 years now. A lot of the people know me. One of the first times I went there after dropping weight one of my MIL's best friends accosted me. She grabbed me by the belly and said (imagine a thick Indian accent) "Oooh, you used to be a Fatty. Now, you're not so fatty." It was a nice compliment but, I thought it was just a funny way to put it.

My MIL & Indians in general (especially the Ba's,the mothers) view weight loss & exercise differently. On some level my MIL looks at my 30 lb weight loss as somehow a failing on her part. From her point of view my wife is clearly overworking & underfeeding me. The fact she hasn't intervened & kept me fattened up is her fault. When her DD tells her I run (6 miles, 8 miles, whatever) she looks at me like I have a fever.

DW doesn't really comment much on my running but, lately she has begun to comment on my weight loss. She doesn't getas excited about my running as I do. She doesn't really understand. To her it's just another means to the end which is further weight loss. She did say if I lose another twenty pounds (WW goal for my height) there would be nothing left of me.

Maybe it's a generational thing but, DD is the most supportive & the most understanding to what I've accomplished with both weight loss & running. She's the one most likely to jump to my defense when DW or MIL is trying to force more food on me. I know she likes the fact I'm running greater & greater distances. Not that it really matters to me what the neighbors think but, I think it's cool my daughter thinks highly enough of my runnning to brag to the neighborhood kids her stepdad just went out to run 10 miles. Teenagers are hard to impress.