The Distant Goal
February 19, 2013
My weight this morning is 192.2 lbs., down more than ten lbs. and ahead of my goal schedule. But, it is easier to lose weight when we are heavier. The last ten lbs. is the most difficult and the slowest. It is also the time when we get frustrated and fall off of the wagon.
The goal is distant, yes, but I can see it in the distance. Partly because I have been here, and there, before. When I was a boy I sometimes had a struggle with weight. Perhaps in the fourth grade or something along in there, I had gotten heavy and I didn't weigh then or even have a scale in the house. My mother had always seemed to have a weight problem that I noticed and people being unkind as they sometimes are might ask, "Is your mother the fat lady who works at the telephone office?" That was later mollified to "Is your mother the heavy set woman who works at the telephone office?" I always answered yet, but i was a child and had the self confidence of a child so I did not say to them any of the things I thought. And, looking back, I recall some of these kind folks being the sames size as my mother.
The goal is distant, yes, but I can see it in the distance. Partly because I have been here, and there, before. When I was a boy I sometimes had a struggle with weight. Perhaps in the fourth grade or something along in there, I had gotten heavy and I didn't weigh then or even have a scale in the house. My mother had always seemed to have a weight problem that I noticed and people being unkind as they sometimes are might ask, "Is your mother the fat lady who works at the telephone office?" That was later mollified to "Is your mother the heavy set woman who works at the telephone office?" I always answered yet, but i was a child and had the self confidence of a child so I did not say to them any of the things I thought. And, looking back, I recall some of these kind folks being the sames size as my mother.
I did not know my own heritage then since my mother rarely talked about it, but when she did, it came in glimpses, small windows that opened and let me see into her life, and mine too. My mother died in 1993, November 1. Her death was attributed to heart failure but, it was set up by type II (adult onset) diabetes, some call "old age diabetes" but that is not fair to just label it so; people thirty years old develop adult onset diabetes. After her death and as I became the defacto and default keeper of her records which I must share with my younger brother Charles, I discovered photographs that I could eventually identify. Several were of my grandfather Max Benjamin Harris; others I found were of an older man and woman playing with my young mother. I had met the older woman in Oklahoma City and I was told to call her Nanna. I thought Nana was her name but, a few times, when my mother was invited to go shopping with my aunt Mae Dean Payne, or my cousin Lynette Payne Cox,, she said, "Oh I can't go because I promised Lena that I would go by and see her and take Stevie Joe." But we didn't go to Lena's, we went instead to Nana's. Years later, with an adult mind and more knowledge, I understood that Lena Harris was Nana and she was my great grandmother. Also, my wife was doing some work in genealogy and had started on my family, which is fun because it is not neat and clean, like some.
I used www.ancestry.com and through it I made many of the links and learned that my great grandparents, Sam and Lena Harris, were Polish Jews who had immigrated to the United States. In the early 1900's, they owned and operated a hotel in Ada, Oklahoma called the Harris Hotel and later becoming the Juliana Hotel.
I am mentioning genealogy because it is linked to DNA and my mother inherited hers from the Harris as well as her other side. I am 50% Payne and I am also 50% Harris, so I have inherited some properties in how my system and my metabolism process nourishment.
And just a brief mention then, the obvious, I am from Polish Jewish stock. I was raised Christian rather by accident but there is my Polish connection. And, Uczę się języka polskiego. In the 1950's, my mother once took me to Froug's Department Store in Tulsa to see an uncle. He was Uncle William Froug and he was the owner of Froug's. I saw him only that one time and I struggled over time to find out how he was my uncle and then through www.ancestry.com, I found he was married to Rita. My grandfather Max Harris had a sister named Reta and due to spelling problems on genealogy, I am betting that the Rita/Reta was my aunt.
Briefly, on my Payne side, I have traced the Paynes to Virginia in 1607, before the United States was the United States, and found my several American Indian grandmothers so on Payne, I am at least English and Cherokee, so all said and done, yes, I am a mutt.
Briefly, on my Payne side, I have traced the Paynes to Virginia in 1607, before the United States was the United States, and found my several American Indian grandmothers so on Payne, I am at least English and Cherokee, so all said and done, yes, I am a mutt.
Is that good, that I know my DNA and legacy now? Sure, because I am now gathering more knowledge and more tools to fight fat. But what I know about my own DNA and my genealogy is nothing compared to what I have learned, and continue to learn from Gary Taubes book "Good Calories, Bad Calories."
I'll get into what I learned about the role insulin plays in our life later.
Stephen Joe "Red Boots" Payne
I'll get into what I learned about the role insulin plays in our life later.
Stephen Joe "Red Boots" Payne
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