What Will Fill you Up in 2010?

Happy New Year! It feels like just yesterday we were going to party like it's 1999 and suddenly its 2010. Whassuppppp with that!!!???

Like all good new year holidays, the media is awash in stories of great weight loss and the happiness that has ensued. This morning, the Today show featured People Magazine and some of the individuals who will be featured in annual "they've lost half their body weight" issue. The three people who had lost weight were shown in the usual dour-du-jour "before" pictures. They were wearing worn out sweatshirts and baggy t-shirts. Mom jeans seemed to the the norm. They were colorless, unkempt and unsmiling. The people pictured truly looked unhappy and why not? A baggy gray sweatshirt is the fashion equivalent to the Pinto. One wrong move and it blows up!

As Matt Lauer brought the weight loss people on to show them off in their new thin bodies, one of the women was wearing a cute purple silk dress with heels and yes, she looked awesome. But you know what? I wear cute dresses with high heels and I look awesome too. So do many large women who insist of wearing beautiful clothes and enjoying how they look. One of the other women who had lost weight said she loves knowing that people aren't looking at her any more. That at the grocery store she knew people were always looking at the food she was buying and now they wouldn't but she can watch other people look at large people and what they were buying. WTF? Why do we keep thinking it's ok that everyone stands in judgement of every move a fat person makes? Does it really even happen? Do people really have nothing better to do than watch what I'm putting into my basket at the grocery store?

Sigh. Bottom line is that the whole story was a reminder to me of how the media continually"sells" the idea that being fat is being dumpy and unhappy. And to be clear - I'm not telling anyone what they should or should not do. I'm just angry that we are sold the idea that we are defective because of our size and only able to achieve true happiness if we lose weight. They sell that so we buy diet plans and other items that have been repeatedly shown to be ineffective, yet....come and get it fat people! This diet, pill, exercise device, etc... is your great shining beacon in the darkness of ugly clothes and snoopy people at the grocery store! You'll lose weight (if only for awhile because we all know that diets don't work) and I'll make loads of money! And dammit, we have bought the idea. In fact, we continually buy it like we continually fill our tanks at the gas station. In this case however, instead of fuel, we are filling our tanks with self-hatred, sadness and judgement.

For the new year, I encourage us all to take back our choice and stop buying into someone elses idea of how we should look or be. The negative messages we hear only have power over us if we believe them and it's our choice to believe or not believe. What do you choose to believe? Do you really believe people have a right to stand in judgement of you and how you live your life simply because of your size? Do you really believe you cannot be happy just the way you are? Do you believe that only being thin leads to true happiness and fulfillment? Or would you rather believe that you are a divine human being worthy of autonomy, happiness, success, love and beauty no matter your size? I choose the later. No....I KNOW the later.

I'm also worthy of a great pair of black riding boots that fit my calves, but that's an entirely different post! First things first.

So I leave you with this simple thought to ponder as you celebrate the stat of a new year: What will fill you up in 2010?