Once upon a time there was a little girl who was so tiny that her mother had to make all of her clothes because there were no sizes that fit her thin body. When she got married she had few choices of a dress because most of them were too large. All the while she enjoyed being able to eat anything she wanted, cinnamon rolls, ice cream, pizza, Tex/Mex food. It seemed as though she would be forever thin. Even giving birth to two babies had almost no effect on her girth. She felt so lucky not to have to worry about adding extra pounds just by looking at food and so it went until she was a middle aged woman.
Suddenly the pounds kept packing on to her midriff. She tried Weight Watchers and lots of exercise and eating small amounts while avoiding anything sweet or buttery. No matter what she did the number on her scale kept growing larger and she felt so discouraged. “How could this happen?” she wondered.
She threw away all of the cookies in her home and started cooking fish and low carb low fat foods. She kept exercising and drinking glass after glass of water. She felt good. Her blood pressure was excellent and she even reached a plateau. She stopped gaining weight but losing even a pound eluded her. She thought of how the same thing had happened to he rmother as she aged and wondered if she had some gene designed to fatten her up to protect her bones or just to make her more humble about her appearance.
Suddenly people who had once had problems with weight were getting surgeries to prevent them from eating too much. They injected themselves with medication that helped them to lose the constant urge to eat. They slimmed down and looked so lovely making her feel like a house. It just did not feel right and so she panicked and asked her doctor if something was wrong with her.
He laughed and told her that she was just fine and need not obsess over something that often happens as we age. He insisted that it was good that she was exercising and watching what she ate but he told her not to worry or constantly count the numbers that show up on the scale.
Then someone she knew had a fall. He was already underweight and the crash onto a tile floor broke his hand, his nose and his ribs. His body threatened to shut down with one serious problem after another. There were times when he wondered if he was going to die. Happily he made it but he had become so frail that he could not walk nor was he able to feed himself to eat. He lost so much weight that he was skin and bones and he became very sick because he was starving even as he had not appetite.
This made the girl realize that it was okay to have a full figure as long as everything else was functioning well in her body. Perhaps she was exactly where she was meant to be. Most people did not think of her as being chubby, just pleasingly padded in a fuller figure than she had ever known. She saw how silly she had been to worry and to compare herself to others who were finally enjoying the kind of figures that had been hers without effort.
The girl kept to her healthy habits. When It was time for her to have some surgery the doctors and nurses boasted that she was a wonderful candidate because she was in such good shape. She could hardly believe her ears and so she found happiness in being herself and appreciating her good health.
There are so many among us like that girl who become dissatisfied with their body images. They dwell on all of the flaws that only they can see. They measure their worth by how low the numbers on their scales are. They take all the fun out of their lives by shaming themselves when they have nothing to shame. They have seen society remarking about famous women who have added a pound or two whispering that they are no longer beautiful. As a whole we put too much value on numbers and not so much in the total package of how people are. We make people so anxious that they become willing to waste away with eating disorders. We forget that beauty comes in many sizes and is mostly a product of the heart.
The girl is content now. She eats healthy food and even a bit of ice cream now and then. She devotes herself to exercise not to bring down the numbers but mostly to keep her body in good condition. A little bit of tummy does not bother her anymore. She’s okay just as she is. Life is good.
All It Takes Is A Little Love 