Just How Thin Do You Want to Be, Anyway? (AKA ... You Skinny Bitch!)

I asked what holds you back the other day.

One of the answers I received was "Lack of support from those around me."

And that makes me a little sad.

I've heard the writer of that comment talk about this before. She says that sometimes, her family/friends don't seem to understand why she spends time working out, why she goes to the trouble of eating well, why she has, in the past, gone to Weight Watchers.

You see, the writer isn't heavy. She's not even a little plump. And in 23 years, I've never known her to be. In fact, if I remember right, even pregnant she looked pretty damn good.

Her comment about Weight Watchers really made me think. I hope I'm representing it right. What I heard her say was that she went to WW to learn how to eat and how to keep pounds off when she was noticing a few extra hanging around. And she felt like others were judging her for being there. Not favorably.

Because she was thin.

Well, thinner than many in the room.

It made me think of all of the times when I was the biggest one in the room and how bad it felt because I believed everyone was judging me.

Isn't it odd that it works both ways?

I mean, I get it. I know how I would have reacted to a skinny minnie walking into "my" WW meeting. I would have been suspicious of her motive and assumed she was there to eventually poke fun at me. You know, find out how much I weigh and then share it with her other skinny friends.

So they could laugh at me when they had their secret meeting of the Skinny Minnie Club in the fitness center. Or when they saw me help myself to a birthday treat on the counter by the mail bins. Or when they went out for pizza, nachos and beer ... because they can eat that stuff every night of the week and it has no impact.

Because she's SKINNY. She doesn't have to actually try to be that way. She just IS that way, right? She's genetically blessed and this all comes easy to her. You know, because she's SKINNY.

Right?

Or maybe not.

Maybe she has issues and worries and fears and problems like the rest of us. Maybe she works really hard to look like she looks. Maybe her story isn't that different from mine.

Maybe there's something I can learn from her.

Isn't it a crying shame we can't find a way to support each other in our quest to be healthy, no matter what our individual path looks like?

We support you, girl! You go be the hottest, baddest, healthiest, strongest, BEST version of you you can be. No matter what anyone else says. (And that goes for you, too, everyone else!)

P.S. For the record, this chick can out-lift me. She's strong for a "skinny" girl. And someday, I'm going to be just like her. In fact, it's my goal to kick her ass. And I kind of hope it's her goal to stay ahead of me ... because then we both get better.
P.P.S. I hope everyone understands I use Skinny Bitch as a term of endearment, not to offend in any way.