Real Women Have Curves

So, lately on Facebook (and, seriously, how many of my blogs are inspired by something on Facebook? Nice. I'm so pathetic) there have been a bunch of "likes" lately on pages like "Curvy girls are better than skinny girls!" "I eat. I have curves. Get over it" and the like.

I have some issues with these pages.

It's not that I don't agree with the general idea that if you are not predisposed to be super skinny, you shouldn't fight to be. Let's face it, not everyone will be a size zero. I'm pretty sure my skeleton wouldn't fit into a pair of size zero jeans. It's not how I'm built. However, a few of my friends are so tiny that if they wore the same size that I wore, pre-pregnancy, they'd be overweight.

So I looked at the "Curvy girls are better than skinny girls!" page. And the default picture is of Kim Kardashian - a chick that is certainly built very curvy and also appears to be at a healthy weight for her body type. Right on. But the posts had a lot to do with things like "chubby chasers" and many, many, many of the fan photos were of women who are overweight to obese.

Understand, I am *certainly* not judging people who are overweight. I tipped the scales at over 300 pounds when pregnant with Rhi. And I've gained more with this pregnancy than I should have; it will absolutely take me some time to return to my target healthy weight after I have this kid.

But this country is becoming more and more obese and unhealthy by the hour. It is a serious problem that should actively alarm us. We eat refined, processed shit for every meal, we wash it down with jumbo sized sodas, our portion size is ridiculous (fun fact on this: Rhi's "kids meal" from a restaurant the other day - one that was only for people 12 and under - had enough food in it for her to eat to her fill there, for both of us to have adequate portions for lunch the next day *and* there was some left over,) we don't get enough physical activity, and it's not getting better. We're passing on unhealthy habits to our kids, too, making them think that this is ok.

All of that is a travesty.

I firmly believe that people can be healthy in an array of sizes. I know chicks who wear size 12s who are just built large, who have less fat on them than I did pre-pregnancy, when I was wearing a size 5 and hitting the gym 6x a week. I know girls whose ribs you could count who consume more food in one sitting than some obese people I know. Your body size/type/metabolism isn't something to be ashamed of. If you have a healthy body that you take care of, with the right foods and exercise, you should be celebrating yourself, no matter what societal standards say about you. But if you're not, don't justify it away by calling it curves. Instead, love yourself enough to make a pledge to start down a healthier path. Don't worry about being skinny or curvy. Worry about your quality of life when you get older. Worry about the example your unhealthy actions might be setting for your child or someone else you love. Take care of yourself.

And then celebrate how strong, healthy, and amazing you are, no matter what body type you have.