I didn’t plan on this blog being about me personally. I mean honestly, who wants to hear about my life and struggles? You don’t know me from Eve, what do you care? But after last week’s depression post and some of the messages I received, I started to think more about it. There are people out there who go through similar struggles as me. Maybe being open will help. If nothing it will show you that you aren’t alone, that there is somebody who has had some of the same experiences.

That brings me to today’s topic, my body. I know, you are all stoked about it now.

So, I don’t have a perfect body. Don’t care. I’m actually kind of short and pudgy, and not a striking beauty by any stretch. That’s ok. I don’t need to live up to anyone’s ideal of beauty or perfection. I do, however, believe I am getting better with age. I used to have a lot of body issues. Come on now, being constantly compared to a twin brother who is a foot taller than and over 50 lbs lighter, how would you feel? Anyone would have had body issues if that was what they had to deal with as an insecure teenage girl.

Here are some of the things people have said to me regarding my body, or weight, in the past month:

1) Do you want my doctor’s number? He did a great job on my bypass surgery. You’ll love him.

2) You don’t need surgery. You aren’t big.

3) You aren’t big enough. You need to be at least 100 lbs over your ideal weight.

4) Why don’t you try Weight Watchers, I hear they are really good.

5) If you just ate better you wouldn’t have a problem with your weight.

6) You need to eat more.

7) I just worry about your health is all. Carrying around all that weight must be hard.

8) Aside from some arthritis in your knees you are pretty healthy.

9) You need to get out and exercise more.

10) You should be 100 lbs with the running around you do.

11) Even if you lost just a few pounds you might be able to find a man.

12) Mighty fine ass you have there, if you don’t mind me saying so.

13) You are one sexy woman.

I could go on and on with the stupid and contradictory comments. (I did enjoy the two gentlemen telling me I was sexy and mighty fine though.) My point being, everyone has an opinion, that doesn’t make them right. What’s important is how you feel in your own body. For some people anything over 130 lbs is too big. For others, 200 lbs is a goal weight they would like to get down to. One thing I’ve found over the years, the people who have never been more than 120 lbs have no idea what 200 lbs looks like.

And let me say this as well, I have never, NEVER, had a problem with men when it comes to my weight. Boys yes, men no. I have always had a boyfriend when I wanted one. Some were just casual, some more serious and committed. No man has ever made me feel bad about any weight I have been, and some have seen it fluctuate a great deal. I’m sure that has a lot to do with me being confident and comfortable with my body. If a man every tells you that you need to lose weight, lose him. That way you lose the weight and the bad attitude in one fell swoop.

In my experience, my weight has not hindered me in anything I have ever wanted to do. Even when I was at my heaviest of 280 lbs. (Yeah, that’s right, I said it.) Yes, it has meant going slower with some things, but it hasn’t stopped me. At 230 lbs I climbed a fricken Mayan ruin! The Temple of the Masonry Altars is 54′ high, with I don’t know how many steps. I did it all by myself and it was well worth the climb. (Yes, that’s a picture of me at the ruins the day I did the climb.) I don a bathing suit and go to the beach. Nobody has ever called me a beached whale, at least not to my face. Even if they did, so what. What a person says tells a lot more about them than it does you.