The other day I was in a local store and saw a couple with two kids. Not an extraordinary occurance. The mother and father were people of size, but they just radiated a happiness that I don't see often. It just made me smile, and made me realize that we are just so much more than these bodies are capable of revealing. Size, heavy or thin, is just such an utterly unimportant factor but yet we're all judged by it.

A friend of mine posted to a message board about weight and health. She's about 20 lbs lighter than I am and the same height, 5'9". But she’s still considered "overweight". Her post was asking whether or not you could be clinically overweight but still healthy. She eats right, she works out at least 3 times a week, most times with a personal trainer. But she's still heavy, partly due to having PCOS. The consensus seemed to be no, she can't be healthy and overweight. That overweight automatically equals unhealthy. This is so ridiculous. By their thinking, she's still less healthy than a person of lesser weight who is a couch potato and eats Twinkies all day. Gimme a break. But some of these people are also ones who believe size 14 is plus size. Their opinions, though, are probably indicative of society at large. The assumption is that heavier people are less healthy just by virtue of their weight, not their lifestyle. To some extent, I can agree with that. I'm not going to say that weighing 300 lbs is ever going to be good for your blood sugar, your blood pressure or your body overall. But to just assume poor lifestyle choices based on outward appearance is just wrong.

I did enjoy one woman’s post. She called women of size "goddesses" and Referred to "goddess sized clothing" instead of plus sized. I liked that. This woman also is one who eats a natural, organic diet and does get regular activity. She’s just not a size 8. I find it sad that we all seem to want to get to somewhere we’re not, some weight we’re not, in order to be happy and love ourselves. And I’m definitely part of that mindset. I’m just not sure how to go about getting OUT of that mindset...