Mark Darcy to the rescue!

Swiss Toni was recently talking about the joys and traumas of changing body shape. The upshot of it all was that in the comments, we were sharing our experiences and hangups about being either less or more than we would like. I mean, for goodness, sake, I'm sure we wouldn't have hangups like these were it not for the media constantly drumming this whole 'dissatisfaction' thing into our heads. Not to mention the role that parents have in making things worse, shaking their head and looking really disapprovingly when you put butter on your bread, or telling you things like, 'That lady in the shop said that you had such a pretty face if only you would lose some weight.' I mean, can you imagine something like that affecting me? As a result, I still think I'm abnormal.

So, I'm waging war on all of this nonsense. Not by refusing to exercise and eating copious quantities of pie and chips, but by re-programming my mind to think affirming things. And I can't let this pass without mentioning one of the mindshatteringly painful yet lovely moments I had the other day: I was recounting a story to my best friend about how this guy I know said that he liked my voluptuousness, found me really sexy and didn't want me to change! For the first time in my life, I think I didn't actually want to lose weight at all! Isn't that crazy? How the love and acceptance of someone who finds you overwhelmingly attractive JUST AS YOU ARE can cause you to rethink your ENTIRE self image and affect your self esteem quite dramatically? I am just really grateful for that guy, he doesn't know how important it has been for me (welling up now!)

Anyway, it gets me thinking about Bridget and her big pants...