MY BODY

“Ambia dada yako sijapendelea hiyo mwili yake. Amekonda sana. Ama ni stress? (Tell your sister that I do not like her body. She’s too skinny. What is stressing her?)” My mother tells my sister to pass the information to me. Pretty much a day after coming from hers. Mothers… I have no idea why she didn’t just tell me this by herself.

What I know now is that my mum doesn’t like it that I’ve lost a lot of weight. Fat rather, because I’m still pretty heavy. Just a kilo down from my weight two months back before I got really sick. I’m currently 63kgs down from 64kgs. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME is pretty much about what I was like while ailing. For my recovery, aside medication, I had to make several adjustments to my diet among which were shifting to seed oil/olive oil from the usual vegetable oil, no longer consuming wheat, red-meat, and acidic and/or gaseous foods. This left me with a diet that would have me loosing some body fat.

I don’t plan on but I also don’t mind gaining a bit more body fat to have my mama happy. Sadly, I have to disappoint her because much as stress might have been a major contributor to my loss of body fat while I was unwell, my current lifestyle and diet wouldn’t be so kind as to have me gaining as much fat as she’d probably want to see me having.

I walk an average of 6km on a daily. I rarely consume wheat and when I do, I have it in small quantities. I take an average 2 litres of warm water in a day. I have not been eating fatty foods and carbonated drinks. I mainly survive on fruits, fruit juices, smoothies, nuts, dairy, white meat, and whole carbs such as yams, sweet potatoes, boiled maize, whole maize meal and oats. I currently hardly consume sugar. I do not like what it tastes like except when in pastries and in lower quantities than usual (explains why a piece of cake in events is enough for me and why I drink a lot of water or have lemons after having cake).

Nothing in my diet and lifestyle favours a quick weight/fat gain. I think my mum will be worried about my body size for a long while. Maybe months, maybe years… I can’t help her. Neither can I help those who won’t stop talking about my body size. I am healthy and that’s what matters to me. Some of the clothes I was outgrowing now fit me well while those that fit me well are currently a bit big. This doesn’t matter really because what actually matters is that I have clothes that fit.