My sister's "belligerance" is in "not looking like Mother." My mother has had a weight problem from middle age on, after starting off life very thin. So for my sister, that goal has always kept her from gaining too much weight.

Yet for me, as much as I'd prefer not to be overweight, I don't carry around the urgency and motivation my sister does, for one reason. Yes, I want to lose weight and am trying to increase my calorie-burn so that I can still eat things I like within reason, and still lose.

But if I did, that belligerance would have kept me thin. Darn it!