Perception

Let me start off with a slightly rhetorical question... How in the HELL are women of any age, truly supposed to have a healthy body image when all the tabloids this week (including the 'legitmate' gossip magazines) are declaring Jessica Simpson "fat" when she weighs 135lbs? According to them she's 5'3".

We now interrupt this blog post for a Public Service Announcement. Jessica Simpson would then have a BMI of 23.9. Which is NORMAL. Granted it's the upper limits of normal, but it's NORMAL. Normal is GOOD! We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post.

Seriously? I would love to call every one of the editors of those magazines and tell them to F off. But I know, it's Hollywood. And in Hollywood, the perception is if you're at a healthy weight, you're fat. If you're anorexic, you're normal. I don't know about you, but I do not want to look like an Olsen Twin. EVER. And I'm sick and tired of being told that's what is expected of women by suggesting that an entertainer is not appealing to the public if she is NORMAL. It's sickening. Just sickening.

And while we're on the subject of perception, let me share something that transpired yesterday. I had a little get together at my house. At one point, I was sitting down next to two friends, and a co-worker said, 'is this the friend you go to the gym with' motioning to the smaller of the two girls sitting there. WRONG!! But why did she assume that? Perception. She meant no offense, I'm sure of that. But it just speaks again to what we assume, even if its not consciously, about others based solely on appearance.

For the record, the bigger girl could post a workout schedule that would put MOST people, no matter their size, to shame.

They're just messing with your peace....

I heard two things this week that struck me very deeply. Neither was said directly to me. But still, both things struck a chord.

One was "You can come up with a million excuses, but I'll bet you can't come up with one reason." That's pretty self explanatory, so I'll leave it alone.

The other thing was said to a friend (The Most Awesome Jess) when she was talking to one of the gym instructors about a (stupid) comment that was made to her. And the instructor said something like "they're just trying to mess with your peace." Wow.
I mean, wow. I want to stitch that on a pillow. I'm going to print it out and put it at work and on my fridge. Because that really hits me. Especially lately with how frustrated I've been at feeling like a freak show. But it applies really to every aspect of life.

I have worked WAY too hard to get where I am, both physically and emotionally, to let some random people (and even people not so random) "mess with my peace".
And the thing is, they can say what they want. They may not intend for their words to rattle me. Or they may. Or they may just be rude people who just give looks. Whatever it is, I cannot let them take away any of the peace I've made with myself. And sadly, over the last few months I've let that happen. I realized it when I heard those words. It was as if they had been said directly to me.

So whatever you run up against, realize people are trying to mess with your peace. Don't let them.