She also posted a quote from the story with the link that caught my eye:
"But also that so many people deal with this, this exact and pervasive struggle at whatever size they are, whatever shape, whatever they do. That we're not good enough, with the implication that the best we have to offer to the world is an appropriately sized pair of jeans."
I thought, "Whoa. I kind of want to read this!" So I opened the article and was blown away but what this woman had to say! To summarize; the writer once weighed 300lbs and was going in for weight loss surgery. She lost 180lbs but still was not happy with her appearance because although she treated, what she thought was, the problem, she hadn't really addressed the main issue of soceital pressure to be perfect.
I don't know how many of you fellow readers are considered overweight, fat, fluffy, obese, chubby, stuffed, curvy, plus-sized, Athena, etc. (and you don't have to share) but I am. I am a size 16 and all my life I have been called all those names and more. I've struggled for years to get my weight down and become an acceptable body image- that's part of why I started this blog, it's part of why I started running to begin with.
Over the past few months with working tons of hours, training for my half marathon, and getting engaged, I've done a lot of thinking. Yes, I would LOVE to be skinny for my wedding. I would LOVE to walk down the aisle in a size 6 dress and have everyone oooh and aaah at me, but I've come to realize that that is not who I am. I am a bigger girl, it says so right in my blog name, and I'm a runner. And after reading this article, I've come to realize that I am a healthy person- I eat well, I drink mostly water, and I exercise on a regular basis. I've run 3 half marathons and countless 5k races- and I'm still a size 16.
There's another quote from this article that I love because it's the revolutionary idea that no matter what dress size you wear, you can still be a happy and healthy person. The writer says, "I want this: I want to say, don't love yourself even though you're not perfect - love yourself because you have a body and it's worth loving and it is perfect. Be healthy, which is perfect at whatever size healthy is and at whatever size happy is."
So many of us continue to struggle to lose weight- some people do it to be healthy and to save their own lives, but most of us just do it because if we become skinny, then everything gets better. Skinny is magical. Skinny is acceptable. But why? I'm not going to stop eating healthy or exercising, but I am going to transfer my (sometimes obsessive) focus from losing weight to being happy.
Because, let's face it folks, we only get one life to live- might as well make it the happiest we can.
