What I am "F'd Up!" about today! DO YOU WANT US SKINNY OR NOT?

I have to vent.

When writing and researching the Skinny Fat post, I discovered this article on the NBC website: "Lost Pounds Lead to Burst Fantasy". In short, the article puts a negative slant on losing weight, that somehow lost weigh equals happiness and many who have lost the weight realize that they are now a smaller person with the same issues.

What chaps my hide is the fact that the author of the piece makes the aesthetic part of losing weight the seeming goal of weight loss. The emphasis on health and well being is really diminished. And the main "character" of the piece is someone who used bariatric surgery to get results instead of trying to lose weight on her own. She is now writing a book about still being a fat person in a skinny person's body. She sounds miserable.

WHAT IS THE DEAL HERE? I don't understand the media, I really don't. On one hand they are shoving health and wellness down our throats and the other hand they don't want us to be healthy. They want the company to come with that misery. They want a plus size woman to advertise for bras and panties and the controversy that comes with not airing the ad. They want "TV's toughest trainer" Jillian Michaels to be rock hard and then crucify her when she says she would rather adopt than put her body through a pregnancy.

How is the average person supposed to respond? In a world so full of contradictions, the one thing we shouldn't be conflicted on is a universal message of health. That eating right and taking care of our bodies through exercise is GOOD. That starving ourselves and master cleanses to fit into a dress is BAD. Health isn't the enemy here.

I am not the thinnest person, nor the fattest person. But I have been large and I have been smaller. It took me years to work on the mental health aspect of health, that my brain had to realize that taking care of myself was a lifelong project and not "I will be happy when I weigh this much". Not every day is a good day. But every day is another opportunity to work on myself and be a better me. My wish is for authors to remember that the pen is mightier than the sword and to be more mindful when writing articles like the one I mentioned. We don't need anymore help to say no. We need all the help in the world to keep saying YES.