Member-only story
How I’m Learning to Appreciate My Body
A few days ago, someone called me skinny. Me. Skinny. Suffice it to say, this took me by surprise.
I am not a size two. I am not even a size six. I have a pooch. I have bat wings. And I am always working to lose another 20 pounds.
So when this person called me skinny, an alarm went off in my head. Years of self-doubt and negative thinking compounded. You? Skinny? My brain questioned it. A red flag was raised.
But while I may not be Kate Moss-thin, the truth is I am not fat. I am not the 200-something-pound girl I was four years ago. I’ve lost a good 40+ pounds and am now what most people would probably say is average size.
I look good. Better than I have in my whole life. And while my eyes may not view my body as skinny, someone else did. Sometimes I still feel like that 200-pound girl. But that girl is gone. Someone needs to tell my brain.
I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this. I think, in fact I know, that a lot of women, myself included, struggle with body image and self-esteem. And body image and self-esteem and weight loss are complicated. We’re hardwired to want that perfect, skinny body. We beat ourselves up for every “bad” morsel we put in our mouths. We focus so much on that unattainable ideal that we forget to appreciate the bodies we have.
