Distorted Self

I just finished watching a movie on cable that really got me thinking. It was one of those Lifetime, feel good movies. This one really hit home though.

This movie was about a teenaged girl who was overweight. She was in her senior year in high school. It showed her being bullied and teased by a lot of her peers. She was nominated as a joke for homecoming queen. Well - her friends and she all got together and she ended up winning homecoming queen. The movie showed her trials and tribulations after being elected homecoming queen. One of the statements she made was that she didn't "deserve" to be homecoming queen. She felt that because she was overweight she didn't deserve the "honor".

You see, this girl is a lot like me. I sometimes feel that I don't "deserve" things in life because I'm struggling with my weight. I beat myself up over the smallest things like not eating the proper foods or not exercising when I should.

Why is it that we equate weight with deserving things in life or self-worth? Is it society that has done this to us? Or, is it us doing it to ourselves?

Society plays a lot into this equation. Recently I saw Marie Osmond on TV saying that she had lost 40 pounds. She had said that if she hadn't lost her weight she would have died an early death. In the next sentence she said that she went from a size 14 to a size 6. Wait a minute - size 14??? Isn't that what the average, normal American woman wears? Why is it that she considered size 14 morbidly obese??? Where is she getting this information???

With pressure like this that you see on TV day in and day out it's no wonder that we beat ourselves up over this issue. It's no wonder that we equate weight, or what size we wear with self-worth or self-love.

We have GOT to stop the insanity. Weight does NOT define who we are or how worthy we are of love and respect both from ourselves or others. Weight does NOT make us a good or bad person.

We are all beautiful no matter what we weigh. We are all worthy of love and respect no matter what we weigh. You do not have to be a size 6 to be loved.

So, in closing, let me say this. Look at yourself in the mirror. Learn to love yourself and respect yourself no matter what you weigh or how overweight you think you are! It's a hard lesson to learn even for myself. You are worth it!!!