On the Flip Side

For my readers that don't know me, I am considered, in palatable terms, big and beautiful, curvy, or plus sized. I have struggled with weight issues most of my life. I have yo-yo'ed up and down the scale, and been on more diets than I can count. Let's face it. Even though we live in a country that has a massive amount of the population considered overweight, the world is not made for us. Blah, blah, blah. You've heard it all before. It is a concern of mine, and I have a lot to say about it, but this post is not about that. It's a different kind of body image concern. I have 2 beautiful daughters. My youngest is very petite in every way. She takes after my grandmother who never grew to over 5 feet. At 20, Georgi is 5'1" tall, and that is where she will stay. In the past 7 or 8 months, she has lost a healthy amount of weight. She looks amazing! She has worked hard to eat healthy and get fit. She works out and not in an obsessive way, but a healthy amount. She has an adorable figure, and I am so proud of her. She lost weight, something this country is consumed with, by the way, (US News and World Report puts the cost at over 60 billion dollars a year) but because she wasn't fat to begin with, or what we think of as fat, all kinds of interesting things started to happen.

About 5 years ago, I lost almost 50 lbs. Now, I certainly needed to lose weight, and I lost it under the advice of my doctor. People praised me, told me they were proud of me, and that I looked GREAT. Some even told me they looked at me as an inspiration. Yay! for me, right? At 50 lbs. gone, I still could have lost 50 more, and been at a healthy weight, but everyone's reaction to me was positive, encouraging and re-enforcing. Georgi met with different reactions after just losing a little over 30 lbs. It started with a family member who jokingly, and I use the term loosely because it wasn't funny, asked her if she was bulimic or anorexic. Countless people have come up to her  and me at church or at events and made a comment of how thin she was and asked was she going about it in a healthy way. No WOWs! No You look great! No pride. All negativity. All skepticism. Why? because she's petite to begin with? Because she wasn't "fat" she has no right to work out and get healthy? STOP! Don't answer those questions. IT DOESN'T MATTER! The point here is why do people feel the need to comment at all? How dare you come up and imply that, because she is at a great weight, and looks great in her clothes, and except for the fact that she's 5'1",  she could probably walk any runway, she's going about it in an unhealthy way. That would have been like people coming up to me before I started to lose my weight or even now and say, "Gosh, you're so fat! Are you being healthy?" No one would think of doing that!!!! Why do they feel it's justified to ask that of Georgi? It is just plain rude. It is insulting to Georgi and all of us that live with her and love her that she would take that path, and that we would let her. Here's a wonderful idea! Let's stop commenting about each other's bodies all together. Fat, thin, skinny, overweight, it's really nobody's business but our own. We should never feel ashamed about the way we look, so don't make us!