What does one do when their spouse is approaching a point physically where they are no longer attractive to them? I'm no prime example of a male of the species. But I'm not morbidly obese either. I'm 5'10, 196. 196 is about 40 pounds over weight according to the books. I can tell you, in high school and college I weighed 155ish and had toothpicks for legs. I wasn't out of shape either. I worked out 4 days a week for 2.5 hrs. I took karate from the time I was 10 until 18. I had my blackbelt at 14 and taught classes at least twice a week. But I was WAY too skinny at 155. I have a large frame and 155 looked anemic on me. I would say 175ish is my ideal weight. At that weight I have no toothpick appendages. But I'm still pretty tight body wise. I'm probably 20+ pounds over that. I show a little bit of gut and some fat in my face. When I go over 200 I really start to show my weight. A couple of years ago I reached an all time high of 220+ (give or take a pound or two). I decided I was never going to be that fat ever again and went on a hard core weight loss regimine. Low carb. Running. I lost down to an all time low of 182. If I do say so myself, 182 looked pretty damned good. Then I got lazy and gained some of it back. I hit 206 again after 2 years and decided it was time to get serious again. I've been low carbing for a month or so and am down about 10 pounds. I have drastic measures planned which will actually start this week. I'm quitting pool. Eating junk food and pounding away tons of alcohol every Wed night is doing nothing for my physique not to mention my wallet. I figure I probably spend about $200 and month on pool nights. With that money, I plan to start taking karate again. I haven't decided exactly what style yet. But my goal is to work out 3 times a week. I'll have to see how scheduling allows. But I am challenging myself to hit 175 in the next 6 months. I'll try to post progress.
To me, it's a matter of will power. One of the things I learned at a young age is that you really can accomplish anything once you put your mind to it. I had my Black Belt at 14 and my open water Dive Certificate (junior). When I was 18 I learned to whitewater kayak, mountain climb, and had a little bit of flying experience under my belt. After college, I decided I wanted to sail. I bought a boat and read a ton of books until I could sail. I didn't take classes (not recommended), I just decided I could do it and did. Same thing with my latest hobby. I built a gun. I'm a gun nut. I have a few. I've always wanted to see what makes them tick so I built a gun. I didn't mill it from raw metals. But I assembled every pin, spring, screw to empty parts until I had a working firearm. Again, a simple matter of will power. My body is my next project. I want to get back to the bad ass that I was back in high school and college, including weight. It's a significant challenge to me now because a) I'm twice as old b) I have a family with time and money obligations and c) I've generally become a lazy shit in the last 10 years or so. However, I've set my mind to it and I'm going to make it happen.
Which leads me back to my opening statement. Mrs is none of that. When I first met her, years before we started dating, she was smoking hot. She had an incredible body. Of course, we were still in our 20's at the time. When we started dating, she had put on a few pounds, but wasn't obese by any stretch. She had C and put on a few more pounds, but still nothing that was grossing me out. Recently, she has put on about 10 or 15 more pounds. When you add up all the gains since I've known her, it's a pretty significant amount.
Last night I walked in the bedroom to get ready for bed. Mrs was laying in the bed watching TV with her head propped up on a couple of pillows. For the first time ever, I saw her weight as unattractive. Maybe it was just the way she was laying down, but she looked obese to me. I watched her get dressed this morning and realized that she is physically unattrative to me. It's freaking me out. In spite of all the shit I talk on this blog, I really do love Mrs. In a way, this blog is an outlet for all the things pent up inside me. As such, it represents the darkest side of me and isn't really a good representation of who I am completely. Yes everything in here is unedited and true. Everything in here has really happened. But lets face it, we all color who we are in our own minds by who we want to be. Even when we admit things that aren't who we want to be, we still see them in whatever light we want to. The reality of my life is, as much shit as I talk, I love Mrs. I love who she is. When they say opposites attract, we are the model. I'm a crass boorish redneck. Mrs is the epitomy of class. She is the person I want to be. She rarely has anything bad to say about anyone. She sees the world with optimist eyes. I and NOT that. Therein lies the problem. I could weigh 300 pounds and Mrs would still be completely attracted to me. But she's hitting a point physically where I'm actually getting turned off. I can't help it. It's not something I want to have happen. I talk about flirting and trying to hook up here. Sometimes I skip the fact that all of that is secondary to Mrs. Yeah sometimes sex with Mrs is very blasee and it's frustrating. But what's frustrating isn't a lack of desire, but rather lack of variety. All of the other stuff is another product of my dark side. Wanting more and more. It has nothing to do with desire with Mrs. Except now the desire is starting to wane.
The thing is, I know I have the will power to make myself better physically. Mrs doesn't. Again, it's the whole opposites thing. So I'm facing a lifetime of Mrs being physically unattractive. It's killing me. Knowing what this lack of desire would do to Mrs is killing me too. I can't stand the thought of causing her mental anguish. And I've always said, you love someone for who they are NOW. Not who you want them to be. You never try to change someone because the end result is always different than what you want. Nothing comes from it but misery along the way as well as the end when you realize the change itself destroyed the person you were in love with. On top of that, I know how sensitive Mrs is. It's one of the things I love about her. I know if I were to say anything, it would crush her. So here I am. I can't help my feelings. It's not like there's a switch I can throw and say "Hey, that her ass now resembles a lumpy throw pillow is SEXY!!"