"i used to wear clothes like that" (m)

Busy week this week.  Presentation to 15 hedge fund managers asking for $10 mm for a project I'm working on and then the two-day Board meeting with the Medical School.

I'm down about 30 pounds since the last meeting a few months ago.  I wore the most slimming outfit I own and adorned the black suit with a beautiful new red print scarf from the dreaded Hermes.

After 3 hours of very technical presentations (financial review, update from the neurobiology department) we had a break.

I went to the ladies room where I ran into one of the other women on the Board.  Tall, slim, older, hugely successful, very stylish.  She asked about my knees which, by the way, were brutal yesterday after my extra long walk the day before.  She's the woman who advised me against surgery based upon the latest literature on the subject.  I gave her the grim news that, despite intense physical therapy, they are killing me.  She looked me over with a disapproving look and said, "You've got to get that weight off you."  I felt a stab wound to the heart.  My face turned red and I started to tear up a bit and said, "I know....but I've lost 55 pounds since Fall.  Do you not notice it?"  She replied "Yeah, sure, but you're not close to being done.  You know, with that outfit, it's hard to tell exactly what your body looks like.  I used to wear clothes like that....when I was NINETY pounds heavier."

I wanted to crawl into a stall and die.  I know I have to lose weight, but I thought my outfit was nice.  In fact, I thought it was something a "normal" person would wear, not some costume for the overweight.

She offered to put me in touch with her physical therapist in "the city" (aka New York....why people say that is beyond me.  We have a "city" in Boston, too).

I thanked her for her support and went back into the meeting feeling like a whale.