I am writing this post out of sheer frustration from being overweight. On a daily basis I read the headlines about women and obesity…
“Women with obesity have almost four times the risk of osteoarthritis”
“Mid-Life Obesity Predicts Women’s Later Health Woes”
“Obesity, alcohol, depression interlinked for women”
“The World Cancer Research Fund found a link to obesity in six types of cancers”
“Heart disease, diabetes, risk factor for overweight women”
We are bombarded with these messages from the media everyday. The “hurry up and get skinny before you die,” messages. This is coupled with the fact every time I visit the doctor he acts like I am a dead woman walking and can’t figure out how I am alive AND overweight at the same time. No matter what I see the doctor for the prescription is always one thing, “LOSE WEIGHT!”
Frankly, I’m tired of it.
While I know a lot of overweight women who are not in good health, I know a lot of skinny women who aren’t either. As much as we need to take care of ourselves, we don’t need the friggin’ stress of media doctors harping on us constantly.
I don’t know about you but I wasn’t brought up to love myself and my body. As a fat kid I was always being told what I was eating was wrong, how I looked wasn’t normal and carrying the weight was unhealthy. Not that my family was to blame, they just wanted me to be healthy and happy. However, I didn’t learn to take care of myself. For some reason the shame of weight and eating blocked all the messages about how to love my body and take care of it.
In my opinion, not loving our bodies and taking care of ourselves, is the real problem over 60% of women face in society, not obesity.
I wish I could post the answer to this epidemic. Give every overweight woman in America the prescription “love yourself’ and have you go to the store to pick it up. But I can’t. I am still on the journey myself. Here are a few things I try to remember along the way…
Patience with yourself – Not in the way “it took you so many years to get this way…” but have patience with you and not be so critical of every little thing you do and don’t do.
One day at a time – No matter how long your “To do” lists are (yes I said lists as in plural), you can only plan today, sometimes you can only plan the next few moments. It helps to break it down and breathe.
Life happens – Things don’t go your way most of the time. Get used to it and learn to accept life on life’s terms not yours.
Love – All of this boils down to loving you. Be kind to yourself, take it one day at a time, accept don’t expect and love yourself each step of the way.
