fat families

Zephira is married with two children and faced with the annual vacation dilemma - where to go this year? - she suggested a skiing trip as a healthy option for her fat family and the kids were enthused but her husband wasn't!

"I expected Joe to turn up his nose at my suggestion," explains Zephira. "He's the type of guy who likes to laze around when he's not working and since our marriage I've slipped into his lifestyle - giving up all the adventurous type of experiences I once enjoyed and as a consequence I'm almost as fat as he is (and so are the kids)."

"Joe's objections were voted out at the family discussion - and faced with the prospect of going away on his own or coming with us he relented but on condition that he was not going to get on a pair of skis."

"Actually he rather liked the idea of going somewhere cold in the middle of summer," laughs Zephira, "and he packed some books and his laptop and looked forward to hanging around the ski lodge while we were out making fools of ourselves on skis."

"It had been close to twenty years since I had last been on a pair of skis," explains Zephira, "and in that time I'd put on a quite a bit of weight so I was more than a little concerned about my ability to cut the snow like I used to."

"Make a fool of myself or not I was determined to give it a go."

"The kids and I hired our ski gear and the first dumb thing I did when we got to the ski lodge was to dress the kids and myself with the ski pants on backwards."

"When we joined the group for our first ski lesson everyone laughed at us," sighs Zephira, "and I got the feeling that Joe had jinxed us with his 'making fools of ourselves' prediction."

"The kids went off with a children's instructor and I joined the novice adults who were being instructed by a lovely Austrian guy."

"He asked whether anyone had skied before and like an idiot I said 'yes' and for this bit of honesty he chose me to be the first one to go down a slope."

"Let me tell you that getting back on a pair of skis is nothing like getting back on a bicycle," laughs Zephira. "Those skis felt like lead weights on my feet and I had no idea how I ever whizzed around on them in my youth."

"I pleaded with Franz, the ski instructor, to let me go to the back of the line because I'd forgotten how to ski - but he insisted I went ahead - and to make me feel better he would go before me backwards to catch me if I fell."

"Well," laughs Zephira, "I took off and you guessed it - I fell right on top of Franz and nearly crushed the poor guy. It's a good thing that Joe wasn't looking because he would never have let me live this down."

"After an hour of instruction I was none the more comfortable on a pair of skis and my legs and back were aching."

"I told Franz I'd try again tomorrow and went back to the lodge to join Joe."

"When the kids came back they were so filled with enthusiasm and joy that I felt like a fat lump for giving in so easily."

"The next day I got up early and did a lot of practice on my own and by the time Franz turned up I showed him what I could do and he was very impressed - in fact he gave me a wink!"

"That wink really boosted by spirits," laughs Zephira. "It reminded me of all the fun I used to have on the snowfields with the guys."

"I forgot about my aching legs and back and stayed out on the snowfields for most of the day after that - if I wasn't going to have a mad passionate affair with Franz then I was definitely going to lose a lot of weight on this trip!"

Zephira's story first appeared as zephira: the skiing trip and is reprinted with permission.

seven bridges to weight loss

Without enough money to book an exotic holiday -- and feeling glad in a way that they would avoid airport crushes and possible terrorist strikes -- Giovanna decided to treat the kids to a holiday experience in their own city craftily designed to whip herself (and them) into shape!

"At first they were happy, thinking it would mean movies and McDonald's every day," laughs Giovanna, "but they moaned and groaned and tried to make me feel like a mean and nasty mom when they heard what I had in mind."

"Around where I live there are seven bridges," says Giovanna, "and I proposed that we walked all of them."

"We all needed to lose a bit of weight and it sounded like a healthy thing to do and hopefully a fun thing, too," says Giovanna, "and I was right on both counts. It was the best experience we could have had."

"We started off with the nearest bridge, about an hour's walk away, and packed a picnic lunch," says Giovanna. "It was strange leaving the car at home, but I reminded the kids that we were having an adventure. We were on holiday!"

"Actually, the first walk took us much longer than an hour, but that was okay," says Giovanna. "We weren't out to break any records and I didn't push the kids to walk faster because I wanted them to enjoy themselves and look forward to the next bridge walk."

"My daughter is 8 and surprisingly she coped much better with the walk than my son, 10," says Giovanna. "I suppose he thought we were doing something girly, and didn't care, but when he saw how his sister was way ahead of him he woke up to himself."

"As we walked, we talked and laughed and pointed out things that interested us,"says Giovanna, "and reaching the first bridge was a wonderful achievement. The picnic was a welcome reward, and although I expected fatigue on the walk home it wasn't an issue at all. In fact, we all seemed to gain extra energy!"

"I'm so glad the first bridge walk was a pleasant experience because it would have been very difficult getting them to accompany me on the second bridge walk --two hours walk away!"

"The next day they were up before I was, excitedly talking about the second bridge walk," laughs Giovanna. "And we made it in less than two hours. Suddenly,it had become a goal to achieve, a mountain to climb, and I was so proud of my kids for taking it on like a real challenge."

"Yes, we made all seven bridge walks and the only one we had any trouble with was the fifth one, which didn't have pedestrian access."

"We walked for miles around it, trying to find a way to walk the bridge,but apparently it was for vehicles only and this information wasn't mentioned on the map we used," sighs Giovanna. "Several passing motorists honked us and one guy shouted out something about a crazy lady. It was a nasty experience."

"We got home about 11pm after the fifth bridge walk, hungry, thirsty and exhausted -- feeling disappointed that we couldn't claim it as an actual walk over the bridge -- and I didn't think the kids would want to try the 6th and 7th bridge walk," says Giovanna, "but to their credit they did."

"They're back at school now and I'm back at work, and we still talk about our bridge walking holiday as the most exciting thing we've ever done."

"It's the first holiday we've had -- at home or away -- where we did something memorable together and in doing so we became very close and shared thoughts that we otherwise would have kept to ourselves."

"I got to know my kids really well on the bridge walks," says Giovanna, "and I'm so proud of them both for being little troopers, and slimmer little troopers now, too."

(Giovanna's story first appeared as bridge walking and is reprinted with permission.)