I was a bit alarmed that 1) someone thought being 6 foot tall and 98lbs. normal and 2) that I was basically bitter because I am overweight.

The truth. Really!

I am around 120 lbs, sometimes 125, others 115. Anyway, totally and completely normal for my height(average). My weight always fluctuates within 10lbs it seems, not that I ever weigh myself. I just know this by how my clothing fits. I have worn the same size for a long time and some months my jeans are tight and other months they fall down if not belted. No biggie, it just really has to do with my level of activity.

With that said here is where I gain and lose weight. When I am more active I tend to eat more and I have noticed that eating less often actually makes me gain weight. That is in line with everything the experts say about eating more often to raise your metabolism, no crazy diet secret there.

But here is what I did notice as I came home today…

My next door neighbor is about 50 lbs. overweight. She is my height and I would guess about a buck 70. I ran into her as she was taking out the trash and I was pulling in. We both live on the second floor. The building has an elevator, but since it is only a flight and faster to run up the stairs, I never take it.

Anyway, I, out of habit, opened the door to the stairs and she, out of habit, pushed the elevator button. I was home before the elevator even came down to get her. Now, a flight of stairs is not much… maybe 10 calories burned? However over a year its a couple pounds.

Maybe that is the problem with obesity in the U.S.? people got lazy and would rather stand and wait 5 mins for an elevator than take the 30 second trip up the stairs.

My conclusion… hah ha, my impatience keeps me thin. Seriously. I hate to wait and would rather run up a flight of stairs quickly than wait for the elevator. Tiny life style changes can make huge differences over time. I gotta admit, if I was overweight, I would never even want to take the elevator, but rather run a few laps up and down the stairs just to do it. Seriously, if taking the elevator causes someone to gain 2 lbs. a year, over 10 years its 20 lbs that could have easily been avoided without any dieting.

Actually, I am glad that I eat everything and anything I want and use the stairs rather than staying on a diet just so I can use the elevator. Screw the elevator, Pizza is so much better!

In my mid 30′s with kids and a husband I found myself in a position that many other women my age share … lying flat on my back and holding my breath in order to zip up my pants. Now, it takes time to get here, but somehow it just goes unnoticed until you just break that zipper.

I looked sadly at my expanded waistline and shrugged it off as a natural part of getting older. right?

My weight had been stable for years, I was not fat, but not as thin as I felt I should be. I was 5’4″ and 140 lbs. I definitely could lose a few pounds. I blamed it on decreased metabolism, it’s natural part of getting   older… right? I am not a big eater, never have been and I do not snack. Not that I do not believe in it or for any dietary purpose, it’s just that I can only eat if hungry and do not like to feel full or stuffed. I also believed that I ate fairly good things. Not much fast food or junk.

My husband and I split up and a few changes came my way that changed my thinking and my weight. My husband is a big beer drinker and always had Budweiser in the fridge. I drink beer as well and always drank Bud because it was there. Now that I was on my own, I started trying other things when I went out. I found Michelob Ultra, which I really liked because it was light and began ordering that.

As time went by I noticed I no longer struggled with zippers. Six months later, I was at my high school clothing size of 4 and weighed 118. The changes were so gradual that I never really thought about it until I needed new “small” clothes. I sat down and thought about what had changed. My diet was the same, excersise? never really do any… the only major change was the beer I drank and… going out more since I am single again.

I read that 1lb = 1500 calories, so if someone drinks say 10 drinks a week and a regular beer is 180 calories (I do not really know, but its something like that) than thats 1800 calories and a bit over 1lb. If you drink a light beer, 90 calories, thats only 1/2 the calories that you have been used to.

After 6 months, you can see how that may add up.

For years thereafter, I remained a size 4 and thin. A few months back, I realized I was gaining weight, my clothes were again getting too tight and I began struggling with the zipper. I thought about anything that may have changed and had nothing. In 4 months I had gained 10 lbs. and saw no reason at all for the gain.

A few weeks ago, I went into the drug store and saw some flip flops I liked, I bought them. I used to live in Flip Flops, summer and winter and now I had not worn Flip Flops in 6 months. Why? I got a new pet, a guinea pig, and she ate Flip Flops. She eats anything that is foam or rubber and devours a shoe literally overnight. Because of the guinea pig, I never replaced the ones she ate fearing that foam may not be the best thing for her little body.

Anyway, I bought the new flip flops and hoped to keep them hidden and out of her reach. I wore them and went on to do regular daily thing. That night I noticed my legs and calves were really sore, I felt like I had been working out or something. I examined the difference between regular shoes and flip flops to figure out why I got such a workout. What I noticed was that it takes a little extra work by your feet and toes to keep them on as opposed to lace up shoes. When I wear them, my toes flex and press down to keep them on and that causes my calf to also flex. That was something I never noticed because I suppose when you always wear them, your legs get used to it.

After wearing flip flops all day long for a week, I noticed that I again began to lose weight. After a few weeks, I had dropped 5 lbs, changing nothing but my shoes.

Is there a point to my ramblings… Yes. Many women struggle with weight, they gain weight, go on a serious diet, lose weight, then get off the diet and regain the weight. They look at the drastic changes for explanations never even noticing the tiny changes that over a long time may make the difference such as the extra exercise I get from flip flops that seems to be enough to cause weight loss.

If you found yourself gaining extra weight over some time and can’t quite put your finger on why, did a bit deeper into the minutia of your daily routine. Things like that new car you bought. A a stick shift car takes a lot more physical effort to drive than an automatic. Moving from a home to another, walking up stairs daily to a second floor apartment burns more energy than just opening the front door steetside. Anyway, you get the point and figuring out the small changes may put you back on your way to skinny forever.

Maybe what causes us to gain weight as we get older is not that easy to see and may not always be our diets, maybe it’s those small changes we make and the extra shortcuts we take as we move on in life such as moving on up to a nice easy access home instead of that old 3rd floor apartment we lived in during college… Ya know.