Annie: On my chinny-chin-chin

I have to admit to a fear that my weight loss will age me (at least, in my face).

I'm 41 now, and while my hair looks older than my age (I let it go grey years ago), my face looks younger. I don't have many lines or wrinkles... I'm not sure whether that's because my face is oily, which it is (and which the ladies at the department store cosmetic counters assured me as a teenager I'd be thankful for when I got older), or because they're puffed out by fat.

When I lost my pile of weight in 2003, I did look older; my face was a little less taut, and I discovered new creases around my eyes where they hadn't been before. Of course, it was well worth the trade to be healthy, but I did notice.

I was talking with a friend about this recently, and she didn't believe me -- so I pulled out some photos that were taken just after I'd lost the weight (that is, in the nanosecond before I turned around and started putting it all back on again), and she agreed: my face even looked older in those pictures from years ago than it did today.

So what awaits me?  Hmmm.

A potential trade-off, though, would be if the little hairs growing under (not on, yet) my chin would go away. An overweight doctor I was seeing at one time for my blood pressure asked me whether I had whiskers on my chin yet. Horrified, I said no, and she said "you will" -- unless I lost weight, that is.

Apparently, fat stimulates the production of hormones that make you grow facial hair.

So every time I start worrying about being wrinkled, I remind myself about being bearded.

And then I hit the bike.