Fat Kids

Were You One?

 I actually didn’t have a bad body image until sixth grade.  I wasn’t really overweight up until that point.  I had pretty slim waist and arms, but was big hipped and a big ol’ booty!  (I am pretty infamous for my shelf-butt-like seriously my toddler Sammi can sit on it).

Some boys started picking on me – it was a rough year for me because I developed pretty early for that day and age and was battling all the womanhood “blessings”.  I had the nerdy coke-bottle glasses that made my eyes like 3 times their normal size.  Nerd Alert!  So they started tormenting me about my caboose. 

Hippo in Tights

Then in dance class I started noticing a difference between the other girls and myself.  I was a whole lot taller, but I was so much bigger the bottom half of me than any of them.  Yet I was completely healthy!  I inherited bigger legs from my mom – they were even muscular from all my bike-riding and soccer playing (this was well before the X box era) I need to find a picture of me in this blue leotard though and I was seriously the skinniest I have ever been in my entire life! But compared to these naturally size 0 girls, I felt like such a heifer! 

How sad is that!  I wish they could teach things like that in school – how to be happy with who you are and having good self-esteem because I stressed over that the rest of my school years.  Especially when I actually did start gaining weight.

There was a lot of ‘bullying’ that I was subjected to when I walked home from junior high for example.  It was pretty horrible to be honest.  It breaks my heart to think of other kids going through this right now for being different whether its because they are larger, have a big nose, or whatever it may be.  All joking aside, I would love to maybe after this journey talk to kids about self-esteem and believing in themselves.

Lessons Learned

Come to think of it, I still have these issues, and it’s worse now because I actually am “Morbidly Obese”  (too bad you can’t hear my voice how I say that!)

And it’s funny because as a heavy person you get sad a lot about it, and what do you do when you are sad?  You eat, therefore making the problem worse! 

But I’m on the right path and I’m so happy about that.  I’m not perfect and that’s okay.  I am sticking to it and that is what counts.  And I’m getting more happy about things!  I’m not so mad about things I can’t have.  I’m realizing my dreams are WAY more important than my CRAVINGS/URGES.

I continue this journey with my head held up high because I know I can do it.