One of the things I’ve been doing to commemorate losing 80 pounds is collecting 80 pounds of food to donate to Second Harvest. For the past few weeks, every time I’d go to the grocery store, I’d also pick up a bunch of stuff from Second Harvest’s most needed foods list and their child-friendly foods list. This exercise has been really fun but also introspective in a number of ways. As I was shopping for the child-friendly food, it took me back to being a 10 year old kid and those first few years when my family first arrived in the US. Things were pretty tough and even though I knew that – I think a part of me had forgotten a little bit what that was like. Buying that food started feeling a lot more personal – not just this distant abstract act of giving. It was like coming full circle. Knowing that I now can help somebody else is pretty awesome and amazing.
As the food started to accumulate in my spare bedroom, it really started to hit me just how much weight I’ve lost. I’ve always wished there was a physical way that I could see the weight coming off of me. Yes, I can look through old photos or know that my clothes are getting bigger but it was all just so abstract. I’ve mentioned in the past that I wished I could just wake up every morning and see blobs of fat detached from my body. In some ways, this food kind of represents that. It is heavy, physical, and even kind of represents a body. It even got more crazy when I bagged it all. I guess it just makes me realize just how far I’ve come and that I’ve accomplished something pretty incredible.
I’m planning on donating it tomorrow morning – it will be interesting to see how the physical task of loading and unloading that amount of food will make me feel.