Emily J. Minor
Emily Unplugged
Hi. Emily J. Minor here, longtime journalist, South Floridian, mom, wife, sister, Marlins baseball fan, NPR radio commentator and Type I diabetic.
Oh, I forgot the most important part for today’s purposes.
Dysfunctional eater.
This was ridiculously clear one recent weekend when we were planning to go to the movies on a Saturday night and I started thinking about movie popcorn that morning.
Feet on the floor, coffee on, newspaper in. Bam. Movie-popcorn-thing going on inside my head.
I mean, come on. Do skinny girls do this?
As it turns out, I think they might. Skinny girls like popcorn at the movies, too. But they probably don’t torture themselves about it all day, waffling back and forth, listening to the devil within, then the angel, then the devil again.
In the end, I had the popcorn and it was actually tasty - sometimes it isn’t, and that is such a waste - and I was happy.
But that daylong debate demonstrated, once again, one very simple truth about myself.
As if I needed a reminder.
I have never been able to re-train my brain about food. Ever.
Oh, after taking a year and losing 50 pounds - I did it in 2007 with practically no processed foods, no alcohol, very little salt, exercise and menus that laid it all out - I definitely eat differently now. I want to keep it off. But there is a part of me that is static and unchanged and set in her ways.
I have taken many of Emily's family photos just like this one. Emily was home in Ohio visiting her mother who passed away shortly after this photo was taken. Her sister Kathy is hamming up for the camera and Emily is embracing her mother like often did.
It’s the part that got me up to 195 pounds.
I would still prefer the mini-Snickers over the grapes, the french fries over the fresh fruit and the bun over the bare burger.
That means I have this good-choice, bad-choice argument with myself All The Time. And, believe me, my devilish side can get quite creative. I deserve this. I deserve that.
Sweet potato fries aren’t that bad. Blah. Blah. Blah.
Sometimes the wrangling starts with my morning coffee. Sometimes it doesn’t happen until much later in the day.
And sometimes it never happens at all. I just breeze through my waking hours, eating my Special K and my half a turkey sandwich and my New York strip steak with cauliflower for dinner. (Yum.)
Sometimes it’s easy and I look great and I feel great and I go to the movies with my bottle of water and the one - OK, two - Twizzlers that I score from the husband.
It’s a little boring, frankly. But I still like those days best.
Emily’s intro
Emily and I became friends while I was working at the Palm Beach Post in the early 1990’s. We were drawn to each other because of our Midwest roots. We are and will always be Ohio gals at heart. Her family became my home away from home when I lived in South Florida for seven years. Her husband Marty even went to Ohio University just like myself. There was always something to talk about when I would spend hours and sometimes days at their lovely home.
I love my friend Emily. You always know where you stand with her and when she laughs the whole world just seems like a better place.
She is a longtime South Florida journalist who for many years worked as a columnist for The Palm Beach Post. Always honest and aimed for the gut, her Real Life columns examined the triumphs and struggles of everyday people. In the summer of 2008, she took a buyout from the newspaper and began freelance writing and working on her cottage industry business - funky and fabulous custom aprons found at alltherageaprons.com
Emily has lived with Type I insulin-dependent diabetes since 1989 and wears an insulin pump. In January of 2007, she began a weight-loss program and spent the next 12 months losing 50 pounds. Now happily slender, she works every day - every day! - At keeping that weight off. She lives in West Palm Beach, Fl., with her husband and son and enjoys armchair politics, napping and Jazzercise. She does not enjoy yelling at her kid about his messy room, although she does this nearly every day.
When the winter weather gets to me I call her and let her know that I am on my way to spend sometime by their pool. They live near the Intercoastal waterway. My tennis shoes are the first thing in my suitcase because I can’t wait to take a long walk along the water and listen to the tunes that her husband just loaded on my ipod.
I am sure that you will come to love my friend as much as I do. She is my weight loss hero. Living with Type 1 diabetes has been hard for her but she was able to loss her extra pounds safely even during a time when she lost both of her beloved parents and left her newspaper job.
