I once read that men find confidence in a woman attractive. My first thought, as I begin my life post divorce is “well I’m screwed!” I have never been confident in anything I do or in the way I look.
For me, there has always been a focus on losing weight. I feel like some of my first memories are of a fad diet or having to go on an extremely long and miserable walk. My father always seemed to push me in the direction that I needed to lose weight to look good and be happy.
What I hate the most is that as a young kid I wasn’t actually fat. I don’t even think I was overweight! Here are a couple of my school pictures from junior high.
Fast forward to high school. Two memories stick out to me. The first one was at school. I believe I was buying my prom ticket and this kid, who was considered popular, said something mean to me about my weight. The second one was, sadly, at church camp. The high school guys made some top 5 or top 10 lists of the girls. Of course I didn’t make it on the looks list. I did, however make it on the personality list. I hate that. What a crappy thing to experience while at church camp!
You may be asking “why is she telling us this?” The reason is, I want us to do better! Let’s teach our kids that they can be happy NO MATTER WHAT SIZE they are! Let’s teach them that being healthy is different than losing weight. Sometimes being healthy includes losing weight, that’s not lost on me. I just want the next generation to be the beautiful person God made them to be! Let’s also teach our kids to be kind. Pointing out another person’s insecurities does not make you cool. Let’s learn to love ourselves! Let’s be happy with the body we have, rolls and all!
In case no one has told you today, I think you’re beautiful! I think you’re handsome!
