The Skinny Stigma

I forgot what it was like to be thin.  I was thin for almost all of my life, because that's what my metabolism dictated.  I put up with comments about, "eating like a bird." or hints that I could have an eating disorder because it was all I had ever known.  Now, I've experienced life well-fed.

When you're not skinny, and I don't mean overweight, just not skinny, people don't seem to notice your weight at all.  You're not too fat, because if you were I suppose that would be a taboo subject too.  But for some reason, it's okay to make comments about a thin person's weight.

Over the past month since I've reached my weight-loss goal, I have had many many complimentary comments.  I've had the wonderful support of my family and friends along the way as well.  It's the people I don't know well, the friends of friends I'm just meeting who seem to feel it's okay to make a back-handed comment about my weight.  It makes me defensive and want to say, "yes, it was hard to lose weight and get in shape, but I don't see why that's a cause for snide comments."

I try to be positive about what I went through and how much better I feel because of the weight I've lost and the exercise I've been doing, and I think I'm getting tired of feeling like I have to justify anything.  Weight is personal (unless you write about it constantly in a blog I suppose) and isn't really anyone's business.

So where am I going with this?  I had forgotten how I had dealt with comments all my life about being thin.  It's not unlike the "comfy chair" syndrome where chairs are comfortable when you have more personal cushion to buffer you. That is until you don't have that cushion anymore.  I don't like being defensive, and I usually react with too much information.  So I'm going to try and just let the comments go and focus on me and not what other people think about me.

The Big Boy Update:  Didn't want to say goodbye.  Vacation was so much fun.  He was sad to leave his aunt, uncle, niece and nephew.  He ended the trip seeing Kyle play a basketball game.  He loves, you may well know, basketball.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Sound sleeper.  Not a sound out of her as we drove to New Jersey and back a week later.  She slept well through the night in her car seat both ways.  Soon, she'll grow out of her first car seat and she'll get into a more upright one like her brother.  Bur for now, she still fits in the tiny, removable one.