The mirror is one of the true reflections of ourselves, and yet many people who are going through a weight
loss program never see it objectively. Anorexic people who are down to a skeletal structure can still see themselves as fat,
while overweight people who are huge can see themselves as skinny.
It often seems that the fatter we get, the more skinnier we see ourselves, and the skinnier we get,
the fatter we see ourselves. Did you ever notice some size 4 girls standing in line complaining about how fat they were? The
media coverage of weight has gotten so out of control that even healthy fit individuals can question their weight.
Self acceptance comes from the inside. The idea of what is "skinny" or "healthy" has been twisted by magazines
and media to produce a disturbed consensus. Basing your "fat" or "fit" idea from viewing magazines or watching perfectly
proportioned characters on sitcoms is like walking through a hall of circus mirrors and accepting those images as factual.
Since models themselves can go on harsh restrictive diets and rely on airbrushing to look a certain way, it's by no means
a representation of how people should look when they are fit.
How fit or healthy you are is determined by how much you eat and how you feel about yourself. Take a baby
for instance. Babies show their quintessential feelings, without the effects of media. Babies are healthy when they are fed
at the proper times, when they are clean, when they are having fun. If they were to skip meals they would be sad; if their
favorite toy were taken away from them they would cry, and if they were neglected they would surely die. Adults are no different
from how they were as a baby, except that they alone have to remember to take care of these needs. Babies don't see food as
an evil substance to consume-they know they need it to live. And when a baby is finished eating, it will tell you. Babies
don't overeat, they always want to satisfy their emotional cravings with something else.
So remember this analogy when you are feeling hard on yourself about your weight.
