I always thought that I would do the right thing by my daughters. I worked hard, I love them more than life, I taught them to be good people, I tried to inspire them to be good students and to be nice to others. As a young mother I battled my weight constantly. I thought I had to be as thin as I was when I graduated from high school. I focused on being thin a lot. I watched what I ate all the time and I exercised and followed every crazy diet fad that came out. My oldest daughter was naturally thin and could eat anything she wanted. My youngest daughter was never thin and always carried a couple of extra pounds. I thought she was absolutely beautiful the way she was with her little round face and her curly auburn hair. As the years passed she grew to hate her body because she wasn't skinny like her sister or her friends. I think that feeling came from watching me battle my weight all of those years. I gave her the impression that every girl should be thin. She still doesn't feel like her body image is as it should be although she is not overweight and is very pretty. I hope one day she'll be able to see herself as others do.
Teen girls and weight control
Unknown, (1999, November 14). Media may feed weight problems of teenage girls. Retrieved from http://articles.cnn.com/1999-11-14/health/9911_14_girls.weight_1_weight-gain-young
You aren't alone, most of us do feel the pressure to maintain or lose weight. Our children have many media messages and peer pressures to live, act and look a certain way.
ReplyDeleteI struggle with my weight as well. It's sad that commercials and celebrities stress the "perfect body", when most of the time it is just an air-brushing or a digitally enhanced figure of themselves. I believe that as long as your healthy, you should try to accept your body (even though this is a hard thing to grasp).
ReplyDeleteWe need to help girls critically read diet commercials and advertisements. It's so easy to loose perspective on healthy eating.
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