"Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters"

I'm learning that I can be chubby AND happy. Woah.

I mean, REALLY. I can't believe I can be totally honest and say that. I've let weight issues control my emotions for far too long. It's been keeping me from dwelling in my own life and fully enjoying all of these moments.

I still desire to be healthy and lose some pounds, but it's not an obsession that puts me into depression. At least, for now... This is a journey, after all, and I have been known to regress.

I think I owe a lot of this change to Courtney Martin who says in her book (Perfect Girls Starving Daughters) that there are so many of us - smart, talented, beautiful women who are wasting our talents and genius on our constant thinking about and working on our weight and eating issues. When someone asks, "How are you doing?" Our minds too often go immediately to how much we ate or how fat we feel to answer that question. We say things like, "I'm good, but I'm having a fat day." There are SO many other facets to us and we rate ourselves solely on this food thing. Courtney Martin finally brings light to how extreme and unnecessary it is to live this way. That just because it's been a normal right of passage for girls to go through this obsessiveness, doesn't mean it has to be normal any longer.

Thanks, Ms. Martin. You rock. : )