Weight Issues from a Different Perspective

I, as many others, have struggled with my weight for quite a while. Not really when I was little (maybe it just didn’t bother me since it wasn’t mentioned much), but once I was in middle school and especially in high school. People could be mean a lot of the time. They would comment on my weight and talk about it like I should really do something about it. In high school I would have someone say Something to me about it almost every day. It was really annoying, but more than that, it hurt. I ate well and I exercised, but I couldn’t do much of anything about how much I weighed and people still talked to me like it was my fault or that I looked like that on purpose.

Now that I’m a little older I’m more in control of my weight issue, but it’s still hard. In order for me to actually keep myself at the weight that I would like to be I have to alter my diet quite a bit and work out… a lot. The last time I reached my goal weight I was going to the gym 4-5 nights a week for probably an hour or an hour and a half over the course of about 6 months.

That was before I got pregnant with my second daughter. I now have two kids (5 1/2 and 1 year) and therefor a fairly busy schedule. It’s not easy to get out and run or bike like I should be doing, and I certainly can’t afford a gym membership again right now, but I’m going to start working on it more. People still make comments about my weight on a fairly regular basis – out at the stores, at work, everywhere. I’ve learned not to let it bother me (as much), but people still don’t realize that ‘innocent’ comments about how someone looks or how much the weigh can be hurtful.

Oh, now that you’ve read that and formed an opinion about exactly how lazy and unhealthy I am, here are a few things you should know about me:

• I currently weigh 103 lbs.
• I have always been teased for being Too Skinny. I have never had any sort of eating disorder (although it seemed almost everyone in my high school and middle school believed that I did)
  
• I drink (850+ calorie) protein shakes every morning, but still have not gained any more weight.
• In reaching my goal weight I normally work out for at least an hour almost every day and eat about 3000 calories worth of mostly protein and carbs over the course of a day. (I normally eat 2000-2500 in a day)
  

Some of the things that people say to me?

• Oh, you’re SOO skinny.
• Wow, you must be like 85 pounds soaking wet.
• You should eat a few more cheeseburgers.
• Do you have to carry rocks in your pockets on windy days?
• What are you, like a size 0? (5 actually, I have wide hips)

People don’t stop and think before they make comments about how someone else looks. Whether someone is fat or skinny makes no difference as to whether you should feel privileged to talk about how much they weigh, what size clothes they wear, or what their eating habits must be. Why is it that a normal person would never walk up to an obese woman and ask if she’s a size 20 but feel perfectly ok with asking if a skinny woman is a size 0?! “You’re so skinny” may seem innocent enough, but if you’re saying it to someone who’s struggled their whole life to try to gain weight to a ‘normal’ level, it can be very unkind. Sure, my friends say stuff, but that’s what friends do. If they cross the line they will most directly be informed of it.

So if you’re out and about and decide to pick out a random skinny girl and tell her that she’s “Soo Skinny” be warned – she may just come back with “you’re Soo fat”. Nothing personal – it’s just an observation.