Weight, our favorite subject— it’s a complicated thing for almost all women. Most women, at one point or another, have struggled with their weight. My struggle started when I was 7-years-old. That’s right, SEVEN YEARS OLD. Do you want to know why it started at 7-years-old? A little girl in my first-grade class told me, “No one will like you in high school because your fingers are too fat.” WHAT?
As an adult, I look back on that and think how lame that insult was. Plus, this came from a girl that was wearing jelly shoes with socks. I didn’t need to worry about my chubby fingers. Where did she even think of that? When I was 10, I spent an entire summer eating salads for lunch because I thought that salads were the key to being skinny. I also thought that skinny equaled beauty. I shouldn’t have been worried about my weight at such an early age.
I never want my daughter to deal with the internal struggle that I dealt with. As she grows, these are some of the things that I plan on teaching her:
- Your weight is between you, your doctor, and the Lord. No one has the right to comment on your weight or ever make you feel bad about it. What matters is that you are healthy.
- Much of your weight is dependent on your genetic makeup. Don’t think that eating one extra chicken wing made you a specific size— there are many factors that add up the number on a scale.
- You are beautiful at any size. Your beauty is not dependent upon your weight. God made you the way you are, and he doesn’t make mistakes.
- People will not dislike you for being overweight. This one hits home for me. I always thought that skinny, gorgeous people would never be my friend because of my weight. Still, to this day, even though I know it is absurd, I am sometimes surprised when skinny women want to be my friend.
- Don’t you ever make a comment about another woman’s weight. Just like your weight is no one else’s business, neither is your neighbor’s weight your business. You were put on this earth to build up your sisters, not tear them down.
Along with these principles, I will impress upon her healthy eating habits and regular physical activity.
I urge you to talk to your daughter about the subject of weight. It’s so important that girls know that they are loved and beautiful, just the way they are.
