Weighty issues

Within the past week and a half, two men, neither of whom I know well, have asked me if I have lost some weight.

I’ve laughed, then told them kindly that I don’t think that is the case.

(In fact, I believe I have gained some weight ever since I started my job here because of the stress. C’est la vie.)

While I have a scale in my bedroom, I never weigh myself because it’s started to piss me off. I don’t care about the number, but I find if I weigh myself daily or weekly, I begin to focus on those numbers. And that’s not what I want.

I just want to be healthy.

… And I want my pants to fit.

(There, I said it.)

Also, I want to look fierce in my wedding gown.

By fierce, I don’t mean suddenly dropping 20 pounds and becoming a stick of my former self. I want to look the same, but more firm, especially in the arm-region.

Recently, I’ve noticed some ads Facebook on my page stating, ‘Wedding Weight Loss.’

So… since I just changed my relationship status to engaged, that clearly means I need to lose some weight for my wedding. Because, obviously, every recently-engaged girl is thinking about dropping some pounds for her wedding. And because we all need to at least thinking about losing this said weight, no matter what the scale actually says.

It pissed me off at first because Facebook was essentially calling me fat. But then I started thinking more about it and began to wonder how many brides-to-be had to click on that ad for it to show up on my page. How many girls thought since it was suggested, they should check out Bridal Weight Loss? How many seeds of doubt were planted in the minds of future brides about their waistlines? And how many of them are self-concious about their weight now?

While I know many people don’t buy into advertising, especially advertising like this, you have to wonder how successful it is. And why they continue running the ad (I see it once a day whenever I log into Facebook, sometimes more) if a lot of people don’t buy into it. Surely that means it is working on someone, right?

There is major pressure in our society for women to be skinny. We’ve all seen photographs of celebrities and super models who are skin and bones. We’ve seen the magazines advertising, ‘Peek inside to see the celeb who gained *gasp* 20 lbs!’ (When they actually might look better with those extra pounds.)

And that makes me really sad because I know so many girls (myself included) who have struggled with their weight. And to be told you need to lose some pounds from a Web site… well, that’s just not fun.

I wish, instead of tearing us down and making us feel like we need to be all legs and bones like some supermodel, we were encouraged to embrace our curves and our size, no matter what it is. That we were encouraged to be comfortable in our own skin instead of being torn down by images and whispers and stupid ads on Web sites.

We are all so beautiful, inside and out, but because of outside factors, we begin to doubt. We begin to wonder if maybe we should start a diet. We begin to wonder if we should take up running to shed some pounds. We count calories. We sign up for Web sites. We get more and more discouraged…

Let’s stand up together on this one because if I’m feeling this pressure, I know many of you are, too.

Let’s spread love instead of self-doubt and hatred.

You’re beautiful!

And never let an outside source, whether it be an advertisement, a magazine, a photograph, a snide whisper, etc., make you feel that you need to change who you are.