The secret.

No, not that book/movie/thing Oprah promoted.

Sometimes when people notice my weight loss, they ask, "What's the secret?" And then I feel shitty because a small part of me wants to say, "You get weight loss surgery, and then you can't eat as much." Of course there's still hard work that goes into it, but you know what I mean. But I haven't told anybody at work and I don't intend to, so I just say that there isn't a secret. You eat less food and make better food choices. You exercise. The end. Am I a fraud for saying that? Sometimes I think so. I mean, I do that, but it's not all of it.

I came into the office and my boss' boss was standing in here talking to my boss. She said, "Are you losing weight?" and I said, "Yes." Then she asked if I was trying to lose weight. Maybe she thought I had a wasting disease. So I said, "Yes." And then she asked about the secret thing. My boss chimed in that I was the "incredible shrinking woman." I know it's always iffy and weird to talk to people when you can tell they've lost weight. It's kind of a personal thing and you don't want to offend them. So boss' boss said that I looked fantastic, good for me and all that. She said she could probably eat less but not exercise, and that she'd heard that "exercise was the key." Well, it's pretty important, but you can't just eat non-stop crap all of the time and exercise away its effects, either.

Boss' boss is in her early 60s but looks a lot older because she never took care of herself. Eats very badly, smokes, drinks a lot. Has such bad knees she can't use the stairs; when I see her coming to work she walks up the wheelchair ramp and she's told me that's why. I definitely don't want to be like that at that age. A lot of people in their 60s are in excellent health. I'm going to be one of those cool active older people, dammit.