64) Fat and Thin

I have always had a bit of a weight problem. My baby photos show what we always called a “Bouncing Baby”- round and cuddly but with the warning signs of my life long battle. Chubby babies are quite cute and even plump little girls are not too bad but once I got to be a teenager I wanted to be slim like my friends. Everyone told me “Its just puppy fat, it will go away soon” but when it showed no sign of melting away I felt I had to do something about it and started cutting down on my calorie intake. Meanwhile my elder sister Dulcie was the exact opposite and did not put on any weight. She was the one my mother worried about though and I remember that she was taken to the doctor for his advice on how she could gain a little weight. He told her to eat fatty foods and drink a bottle of stout every day. That could have been enough to make a plump teenager hate her elder sister. She would sit at the table complaining that she did not want to eat what had been put on the plate for her and I would sit beside her with my half a tomato and one lettuce leaf and think very unsisterly thoughts about her.

At Christmas one of our uncles used to give us a box of chocolates each. They came packed in a large flat box with a very pretty picture on the lid. I wonder if they still pack chocolates like that. The pictures would be of cute kittens, puppies or flowers, sometimes they were little thatched country cottages or lovely country scenes, real ‘chocolate box art’. We would put them into the cupboard of our dressing table and I would pretty quickly devour all of mine. Once mine where finished I would take a peep at Dulcie’s box and they were hardly touched. She had so many left I was sure that she would not notice that one was missing. I think I would end up eating more of hers that she did. Much later I confessed to her that I had been stealing all her chocolates and she said that she had known all the time, but as she was not very interested in them she did not complain. I suppose our different weight problems come from our different attitude to food (chocolates in particular). I have always loved my food and often eat too much but Dulcie was a much more dainty eater.

Once she was married and expecting her first baby I used to tease her saying, “Once the baby is born you will get fat like me” but she didn’t. So when baby number two was on the way I said “This is it, this is the thing that is going to make you fat” but I was wrong once again. I was wrong about the effect Baby Three and Baby Four would have on her slim frame so had to resort to another tactic to tease her. I told her that when she got to 40 she would suddenly start to spread and soon she would be as large as a bus. But when her 40th year rolled on to her 41st I had to change my threat and so decided it would have to be her 50th year that would make her as plump as me. 50 turned to 60 and even 60 to 70 and I was still looking for a sign of a broadening in the beam, but there is none and I have just had to admit that there never will be.

I have learnt over the years to control my weight a little better and so I don’t think I am fat anymore but it is a continual battle and I have to watch what I eat or I would be the one to be as large as a bus. Whereas Dulcie still seems to have no problem staying slim and I have just had to learn to forgive her for it but I can’t help wondering why with the same genes and the same upbringing we can be so different.