Issues

I am having some serious issues with my body image. I torture myself every morning and try on clothes hoping that I will fit into them. The crazy thing about body image is that for women it really affects a lot of stuff! One of the biggest thing it affects is your sex life. If you don't feel attractive, then you don't feel sexy. Explaining this to men is really hard though, I know I was trying to explain it to one of my guy friends and it just baffled him. It completely baffles BG as well. He does not see my body the way I do, so he does not understand. I think through all of this, God is trying to teach me something. He is trying to teach me that I am "fearfully and wonderfully made" and that He looks at me in a totally different light. I think that until I realize that and believe it, I won't be able to lose weight. I think this is something that He really needs me to see! The cool thing is that He has given me a very tangible example of this in my husband. BG has never once commented on my body in a negative way. Even when I ask him point blank questions, he tells me that I am being ridiculous and that I look fine. I know men have it driven in their head not to make negative comments, but I don't think he does it because of that. I think that he really thinks I am totally wrong. He sees me as beautiful and amazing, not from the outside, but from the inside and that makes me beautiful on the outside for him! I am so thankful that God has given me such a wonderful and Godly husband!

Does Size Really Matter?

My friend Tessie has this thing about talking about your body and your health. I am not as "strict" about it as she is, not that she is really strict, but you get the idea. Her view is that you shouldn't talk about it, one way or the other. This was passed down to her from her mom, who by the way, is one of the coolest and nicest people out there. Anyway, I digress. I was watching What Not to Wear and realized that I have this same sort of philosophy about what size you wear. Now, this is a pretty new philosophy for me, because I used to be consumed with what size I wore and compared myself to other people. Then I realized that was really stupid, why?

Well, for starters, who cares if it is the right "size" but it doesn't fit well and/or is totally uncomfortable. Sometimes your "normal" size actually makes you look bigger than you really are, because it doesn't fit you right.

Second, clothes makers don't follow a standard size chart. It seems like this should be regulated by some kind of government agency or something, I mean, put our tax dollars to good use people!

Bottom line, I think that you should shop for what fits, regardless of what the tag says. It is exciting when you move down to a smaller size, but for the most part, I think you should concentrate on how the clothes make you feel and how you look at them. You can't compare yourself to other people and worry about what size they are wearing. You have different body shapes, types and genes. I think that confidence of who you are, what you have on, and how you feel like you look, make you that much better looking than fitting into a certain size!