Monday, November 23, 2009

Weight and Words...

The blogs have been a buzz with all sorts of weight related news...

Kate Moss got roasted because she said that "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" which apparently is the slogan for pro-anorexia sites.(Who even knew that there were such a sad!) I am pretty sure that chocolate chip cookie dough actually DOES taste better than skinny feels!

Then there was the Ralph Lauren campaign with the photoshoppers nightmare...

Then Demi Moore had a slice of her hip sliced out on a magazine cover (probably because she is sooooooo gigantic. Puh-leez! ) **This just in ..she is claiming that there was no touch up and that she just doesn't have hips... don't you feel sorry for her, how does she survive?

Then Heidi Klum drags her 5 week post-partum booty onto the catwalk and makes almost every mother in America feel a twinge of guilt for having skim milk, when they should have just had water.

No wonder women have such issues with what "normal" looks like.

To add to that, there are shows like "The Biggest Loser". WAIT, before you get mad at me (Lori)... I think the concept is great! It is wonderful to see people lose weight and reclaim active lives, but it sure makes me depressed when in two weeks I barely lose ONE pound and they have lost 14! Our expectations are warped. Instead of feeling great that we are losing weight (which at that rate would have me losing 25 pounds in a year) we are discouraged that we aren't losing fast enough.

Guess what? If I had a personal trainer, a nanny, a chef, a make-up artist and a publicist to make sure every picture of me was Photoshopped to perfection, I may be a little less stressed about why I have to wear my "fat pants" every so often.

All that to say that I commend each of you for the things you are doing to be a HEALTHY person.

Healthy comes in all different sizes and beauty comes in all different shapes. It does us no good to try to achieve a certain look, because beauty standards change. Frankly, it amazes me that the current look is okay from the front, but I am pretty sure that if that Victoria's Secret model was walking away from me, I could easily mistake her for a Jr. High boy. Curves have become the enemy, that is unless they were surgically enhanced.

I say, forget it.

Celebrate the small victories if you are trying to lose a little weight for your hearts sake. If you are trying to be fit, say hooray for the extra 10 minutes on the treadmill or for refusing another cookie. Don't, however, lose sight of the fact that skinny does NOT equal happy. Happiness only comes from the internal, not the external. The true source of joy came "that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10b)

(And as a general rule, it is best not to celebrate weight loss by eating ice cream- I am learning from experience here!)


  1. Your post made me laugh. :-) Esp the celebrate weight loss by eating ice cream part.

  2. Jes, hooray for your realistic viewpoint AND for your one-pound loss! It is WAY better to lose a pound than to GAIN... well except in my case (pregnant)... but you get the idea. I also think it is pointless to compare to Biggest Loser contestants on TV, because you are trying to be healthy whereas they have been so unhealthy that they have gotten to the point where they NEED to be losing 14+ pounds a week.

  3. Anonymous3:26 PM

    Great post! The first picture is disgusting. I mean, that body is hardly alive...looks like a skeleton to me.

    Celebrating weight loss with ice-cream is as bad as me popping peanut M&M's while jogging.


I love comments! Tell me what's on your mind!