I missed posting last week.  Not intentionally, but because I didn’t have any inspiration for a post and didn’t want to post just to post.  I like to find a passionate topic to talk about each week and last week for some reason nothing came to me.  So to my routine readers, I apologize for the missed entry.  Maybe if you’re lucky I will post twice this week! 🙂

I have been thinking about weight, body image, and how much we judge ourselves (and others) by weight.  We even tend to judge people more by their weight than their personality, pretty typical, but we often say, “Don’t judge a book by the cover and don’t judge a book by its movie” so why don’t we follow this same rule when it comes to people?  More than judging others, we even judge ourselves by the number we see on the scale.  We use that number to decide whether we want to lose weight, how much weight we want to lose, and how perfect (or not) our body is because of our “ideal weight” goal.  So how do we get past this idea of judging ourselves by the number on the scale?  I will share a little secret with you.  I got rid of my scale about 13 years ago.  It’s one thing that I changed  and I haven’t looked back since.  I do not own a scale, I do not know how much I weigh other than a guess and I always ask my doctor to refrain from telling me my body weight.  Why?  Because I don’t want to be able to judge myself by the number staring back at me on a scale.  Instead, I can easily tell how my body weight is doing by how my clothes fit, what foods I am putting in my mouth, and how much physical exercise I am getting in comparison to my daily caloric intake.

So I talked about judging ourselves and judging others, but I didn’t really connect the two.  We know that we judge ourselves and others, but now we must realize that we judge without knowing the health choices a person makes and the lifestyle they lead.  My point is to convey the differences in people and to realize that “healthy” for one person isn’t going to be “healthy” for another person.  Think of it like this: “our” healthy is our own unique “setting” similar to how we look, our personality, our characteristics and traits, goals, aspirations, etc.  While we are all unique in that aspect, we are also all unique in what “our healthy” is and means.  For example, my “healthy” as a 26 year old female might be exercising 5 days a week on my own, high metabolism, few genetic health concerns, but another 26 year old female’s “healthy” might be to exercise in a group class 3 days a week because of her lifestyle, steady, but not fast metabolism, and several genetic health concerns.  My point is that each person’s individual “healthy” is different hence different body shapes and sizes.

Try to remember that healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes.  Often we think or believe that if you are thin, slender, or skinny that the person must be healthy and if a person is large, curvy, or plus-sized that they are fat and unhealthy.  This is so stereotypical and false.  A large person can be healthier than a thin person and a thin person can be healthier than a large person.  Healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes, I cannot say and reiterate this enough.  Physical exercise, eating and nutrition habits, family history/genetics all contribute to a person’s overall health and well being.  It’s something that the world must realize to move forward.  Not only will it make you feel better about yourself, it will make the world a more accepting and less judgmental place.

So, next time you see someone thin, large, slender, plus-sized, etc remember that healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes because all bodies are unique and different.  I will also suggest that next time you consider stepping on the scale that you reconsider and instead use your clothes to judge how well you are meeting your health goals.

~jj