Seriously?!

Alright, so my quest to clean the house is not going so well. I've done, well, nothing. I moved around some dishes and then spent the morning looking for music to add to my iPod. (hey, I need music to clean to!)

Anyway, in my wanderings while waiting for music to download, I found this. Seriously, I hate the BMI calculator. It makes me sick. Who in their right mind would look at this girl and think "Oh yeah, she's overweight." Is it her boobs? Are you not allowed to be "normal" and have boobs?
And then there's this one. Almost "obese?" It makes me cry because I know so many girls/women that judge themselves based on this stupid scale! Doctors have it up in their offices so we take it as "right", but looking at these pictures (glance through the whole album - it's worth it), I can't take it anymore. The girls in these pictures are beautiful, but I'm sure that they don't see themselves that way simply because of a number and a word.

I feel the need to share a story. It's related to the above.

I remember a time in my life before dieting. In high school, I was 145lbs and 5'6". I did sports and walked to school every day. I was actually content with my body. I mean, I knew I wasn't perfect, but I was ok with myself. But I kept it a big secret, locked inside, because no one is ever content with their body. "Something must be wrong with me" I thought. So I started telling myself I needed to lose weight. It gave me something to connect with other girls about. We would sit and complain about our bodies and reassure each other about how really, we looked ok. But still, I was OK with my body. And I stayed at the same weight (give or take 5 lbs) for about 6 years. Then, I got into college and into serious theatre and decided to "diet."

From that point on, it's been a struggle. I have gained so much weight since that choice was made. I go on and off eating right/dieting/exercising. I've tried gyms, exercise programs, eating programs, whatever I thought might work. And they do for a short time. Then you skip a day here and there, then the guilt sets in for not doing it, so you eat/not exercise for "one more day" and say you'll start again tomorrow (which you don't), so you feel guilty, and a horrible cycle starts. I know some of you out there in blogland are with me.

We are bombarded every day with images of airbrushed models and commercials about every diet on the market. Every other commercial is for South Beach meals, Jenny Craig, or something to do with working out. I wish it would all just go away. Maybe then we could learn to be ourselves and not what other people expect us to be. We wouldn't feel guilty about being content with our bodies.