There is so much context necessary for a post like this and I hope if you’ve been following along for awhile that you know me a bit so you can understand all that I’m going to say.
Let me begin by stating my true, honest to my core feeling about body image, weight, and self esteem.
The number on the scale is how much you weigh. It doesn’t represent how pretty you are, how fun you are, how many friends you have, how cool you feel, etc. It measures the weight of your body. Not your soul, not your personality, not your identity.
The number matters for health reasons. Beyond that, it’s just a number.
My parents raised me with a healthy body image. I’ll reference my mom a bit more here simply because she played a larger role in my self-esteem as a woman! I never heard her say mean things about her body. There were things she didn’t like, but it was very much a casual, “in passing” kind of tone when it came up. I remember her telling me that my weight would likely fluctuate throughout my life in a very matter of fact, kind way. I agreed with her and that was pretty much the only comment about my weight that I can even remember. When I went to college I gained the typical freshman 15. Then I lost all of it and some when I transferred to the university in NC in 2006. I was down to a size 2! I truly don’t remember how I lost that weight, but I know part of it was busyness and being full to the brim in love with my new boyfriend ...