No "Cheers" for Kirstie

" I was on Slim Fast for awhile. I would have a delicious shake for breakfast, another for lunch and a balanced meal for dinner. By then it would be 9 am." - Jodie Maruska


With great dismay, I watched Kirstie Alley go on Oprah yesterday to berate and hate herself for putting weight back on after her Jenny Craig endorsements and "disappointing all of the people she inspired." Argh! I can hear all the paparazzi and celeb watchers clucking their tongues while they call "over here fatso" when she's walking down the airport concourse. I can see Oprah cooing and commiserating over her own "failure" of weight gain and disappointment. I can see us all, women everywhere, slipping even further down the slope of self-hatred and bullying simply because we've put on some weight or have thighs that are not quite as small as we've been told they need to be in order for the earth to continue turning and gravity to keep us all from being flung into outer space.

Did you catch my sarcasm? Because that's the importance size has been given in women's lives (I can't speak to men.) We are never enough until we are less than and that's quite a conundrum. We are never to let down our guards and stray away from carrot sticks and celery. We are never to let ourselves be human and let our bodies fluctuate and put on weight, or lose weight slowly. God forbid, you just get happy and healthy with yourself and do things that feel good and nurturing to your body in attempt to be healthy as opposed to reaching a specific number on the scale. In the culture of "The Biggest Loser" there is no room for people who are not only fat but are only losing one pound a week versus 10 pounds or more. Didn't you know it's a contest and faster is better and super thin is best? We can never let ourselves simply "be" and embrace ourselves in all of our imperfect glory.

I feel badly for Kirstie. Not for the weight she's gained but for the crap she's heaping onto herself. I suppose that when you put yourself out there in such a public way, it's only fair to expect to be scrutinized, which begs the question, why put it out there so publicly? Why do we all feel like everyone needs, or wants, to know all of our personal business? Quite frankly, it is none of my business how much Kirstie weighs. Apparently, she even has some sort of diet plan that she wants to market and that's a sickness in and of itself so I'm not even going there. Just another place to spend hard-earned money in attempts to fill someones idea of what we are supposed to look like in order to be ok. Been there, done that, I think I'll pass.

So - Kirstie, instead of hating yourself and in turn, putting out a ton of negative energy out there, my wish for you is that you find some peace in your life. That you can love yourself for a myriad of reasons, even to include your body because it's still the house in which you live. Be kinder to yourself. Let's all be kinder to ourselves.