Supersize vs Superskinny

When it comes to the topic of weight loss most women cringe and think about the weight they would like to be or what they need to do to change. I have thought about this for many years seeing as I have been "overweight" since I was a child.

I remember the first moment when I knew I was different from other children. Now this thought did not come from the way that the children treated me in elementary school or a comment from a bully... it came from the statement of a doctor. I went to the doctor for a normal check up when the doctor took it upon himself to tell 12 year old me that if I don't lose weight I will be at risk for a slew of weight induced diseases such as diabetes and heart-failure. He told me that I was obese for my weight/ height. I was only 12 years old so I really didn't know what that means.

I had never looked at myself as "overweight" until that doctor said something to me and then after that other people started saying things to me about my weight. I don't know if I had just never noticed before how people viewed me or if I carried myself differently after I heard the very damaging words of that doctor but my world had been changed from that moment on.

This would set me on a path that would give me a constant battle with weight. I would starve myself to loose weight when I was in high school. I would go for 3 days without eating anything and then eat a bowl of steamed vegetables. When I went out with friends I would say that I had already eaten or I would eat and then make myself throw-up. I lost 20 lbs in the span of 2 months but no one could tell because I wore such large clothing.

At my largest I wore a size 13 in teen's but I bought a size 16 in women's. I clearly had no idea what I looked like or what I should wear. One comment 5 years earlier almost put me in the hospital for the opposite of what the doctor had wanted.

I know that weight is a touchy subject and that being overweight can cause disease and death but so can being underweight. For this reason I am glad to say that I realized that there is a happy medium for everyone and that even though doctors want to base it on BMI that isn't really the way to go. Now there are clearly people that are too heavy or too skinny but looking at pictures of myself from elementary school I can see that I was a little heavy but I was by no means obese as the doctor had told me.

I think as a society at large we care far too much about what we look like and we consistently judge others who do or do not fit into our ideal weight/ size. I found this song a few weeks ago and I feel that it perfectly embodies what I wish someone had told me in high school. The song is called "I Know Girls" by Mary Lambert.

Here is a lovely picture of her face... 

Please take a listen to "I Know Girls": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7tlFfKCESg

The take away for me from this song is that "you are no less valuable as a size 16 than a size 4," because some people do not believe that. I've had conversation with girls who don't believe that statement and it makes me sick. We as women need to look out for other women and help them to love their bodies.

So take the time to share this song with a friend and have a truthful conversation with her about how you felt listening to this song and what it might have brought up in you.

Thanks again for reading!

This is Real Life

Now, it looks as though I have given up my last blogging site but, in truth, I haven't. It turns out that PBU and Google hate me and have made it so that I can't get back into my last blogging site because it was done with a eagle.pbu.edu address and now it has changed to cairn.edu. Thus, I have no access to my old blogs... and to this I say Great! sarcastically to myself.

But I guess this is a chance for me to start again and I am going to cut and paste my old blog posts on to this blog if I can.

I think it is also a work of God that I have to make a new blog seeing as the blog was called "Youth For Christ" and I am no longer working at WCCEC. This is a slightly touchy subject and I am not sure how I feel as of yet. Thus, I will be using this blog to think through my feeling about the church and where God is leading me. I will also write about the funny things that happen in my day to day life that don't seem to make any sense.

I hope that this blog can be a help to you in your walks with Christ and can also just give you an update as to where I am and what I am up to. This of course does not take the place of me talking with you one on one; but for those of you I don't get to do that with very often this should help in aiding our friendship. And, furthermore, just give me a place to vent some of the things that are going on.

Well, I am going to try to post ever Wednesday, starting tomorrow, and whenever something pops up. So I could post more than once a week or just Wednesday, we'll see.

Thanks for reading!