Once Upon a Time, I Was Fat
I remember being "fat" from a very early age. Elementary school. When I look back on my 1st thru 4th grade pictures, I got progressively fatter in each one. Grade 1 & 2, I was not fat yet. Food was a big thing in my house. We loved it, we ate it & it was all nice & fattening! Lots of treats & sweets too. All get togethers were centered around food. Now, as a disclaimer to my deceased parents who were great, all this health info was not out there back then. There were not TV shows on it, there were no computers & internet, there were no "health warnings". It was just, it was what it was..... And as many of you know, kids can be cruel. Heck, I think it is worse now with the bullying & internet bullying! But between that, being Jewish & living places that there were very few Jews, well, to say the least, I did not grow up with a lot of self confidence or self loving. Let me stop here to mention MizFit's post yesterday on this. A very thought provoking post.To embrace and love whom you already are.
To be wholly comfortable in your own skin.
To realize that, by virtue of BEING, you are enough.
To be unapologetically yourselves.
My childhood really effected how I felt about myself then & how I feel now. And even after losing weight, the feelings remain & linger.. even now. I never resolved them even though I have tried many times thru the years. People look at me & what I have done health & fitness wise and think, MAN, she must really like herself OR she must really think she is super fit & hot or whatever... sh*t, you see how I sign my name, Jody - Fit at 51. Well, that came from just a way to spark people's interest & get people's attention to look at my blog. The point being, we can lose all the weight in the world, we can be fitter than fit, we can go around "acting it out" BUT if you don't change the mindset & how you feel about yourself, you are still the same fat person in the mirror & your mind.
Now, I can say that I look in the mirror on many days & am so proud of what I have accomplished health & fitness wise. Then there are days I see the fat kid. BUT, I still have not conquered the "embrace & love whom you are" & all the above stuff in MizFit's mission statement.
DON'T FORGET TO WORK ON THE MENTAL & MIND YOU AS YOU WORK ON THE PHYSICAL YOU. WITHOUT IT ALL, YES, YOU WILL FEEL THINNER & HAPPY ABOUT THAT BUT YOU MAY STILL BE HELD BACK BY THAT NEVER BEING GOOD ENOUGH FEELING.
So, I certainly hope I have not thoroughly depressed you all. As MizFit's post mentioned, how honest do we get..... BUT, I do hope as her did, that this gives you something to think about in terms of when losing weight, work on the mind too! Comments, Discussion ... feel free!
PS: I was totally going to write about something different today.. about how I lost my weight but the post turned into this so.. To Be Continued another day.....
I just had a read of MizFits post and I can see what you mean. For me it is still work in progress. However, the older I get the more comfortable I feel about myself and what I do. I know that rubs off on my children, so its important to me to work on it and love me for me!
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Great post! It's so painful though to think about what you went through & how many kids still suffer the same things.
You make such a great point about the need to work on the mental stuff as well as the physical! Self-acceptance is much easier said than done.
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Thanks for writing this today! I have a teen and need to be extra careful with my words. She doesn't exercise and is not involving in sports, and I see a slight expansion taking place in her thighs. No biggie, because she's still a size 3, but I need to stress the importance of being healthy, not lazy, in a very delicate way. I already lead by example, but she still doesn't get it. Wish me luck with the talk!
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You're so right. The grapple upstairs is as important (or moreso) than the battle of the bulge.
Great post!
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Well...What a great post! I too went through the same teasing, name calling, etc.. as a kid. I feel that it has shaped me (no pun intended) into who I am today. I have empathy as well as sympathy for those who are insecure and or overweight. Nobody knows how painful it can be as a child or even an adult. I've learned that people who are overweight constantly think that people are staring, and name calling when they are walking around or at a restaurant eating. It never, never leaves their minds. How sad to live like that. I refuse to listen to other people use word fat in my presence. I think it's awful. So when you see someone who may be overweight instead of staring, smile at them. It will make their day.
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THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING THIS.
Im honored if I prompted it in any any way.
I can relate to a lot of what you said.
especially the being different by being Jewish.
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Such a cute, cute girl!! Good post, too, but you were such a cutie! I think a lot of what we feel is because Mother (our mother) wanted a career and life of her own and didn't really want kids. Unfortunately, we were "pre birth control" kids. It was a sad situation all the way around. Our mother was miserable, which affected those most vulnerable around her.
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What a great post today Jody. There is something in here that all of us can relate to in some way. Kids can be mean just because someone looks a little different than what the world deems "normal". Reading this brought back a lot of memories to my childhood, being picked on. But you are 100% right, we learn a lot of this in our home and I for one was brought up to accept others, embrace others and treat everyone with respect. It is a shame many out there were never taught that! It will always be on-going work to get your mental self to where your physical self is and balancing the two is the key! Thank you so much for sharing all of this and I am loving your pic-so cute!!!
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Childhood can be so difficult for so many reasons. You get teased if you are too fat, too thin, too smart, too dumb, too... whatever. I'm glad that you are working on overcoming your issues! I feel your pain.
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Me too as a kid! I liked sports and being active, however, and once my karate instructor let me know in no uncertain terms that I was getting too fat in my early 20's, I changed my eating and never looked back. I wrote about it last July 4th because hot dogs were my fatfall
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