Health > Weight

I made this photo very big so it didn't get lost. I needed to see this today. I found this picture on a wordpress blog and seriously needed it. Logically I know that the scale doesn't and shouldn't define me as a person, but knowing that and believing it are too completely different things. I'm still struggling with the believing part. 

How are you supposed to believe that you are more than your weight in today's world? A world where stick thin models and actresses are glorified? Now, I'm against body shaming. I think it's just as bad to call someone too skinny as it is to call them too fat, but the fact is that, yes some of these models are "born skinny," but the other fact is that some of them starve themselves, and that's not okay. It's not okay to glorify anorexia, but it's also not okay to shame someone for being too thin, just like it's unacceptable to shame someone because they're overweight. 

How are you supposed to every feel good about yourself if you don't look perfect? Or what society deems perfect?

The fact is that I may be overweight, but I'm healthy. I wasn't. Not 18 months ago, but I am now. My once borderline blood sugar levels are now perfect and on the lower end of normal. My once high cholesterol- normal. Being thin doesn't guarantee health, just like being overweight doesn't automatically make you unhealthy. Studies have shown that overweight people who work out are healthier overall than people who are thin but don't work out.

I started this journey for all the wrong reasons. Being healthy was at the bottom of my list of reasons for wanting to lose weight. Feeling beautiful, and being beautiful by society's standards, that was at the top. Feeling beautiful on my wedding day, in my dress, was at the top. Being able to confidently wear a bikini was at the top. But my health? No, that was at the bottom, when it should have been at the top.

I know all these things about my health and how much better I am now than a year and a half ago, but how do I change my mentality? How do I stop being defined by that ever irritating number on the scale?