Today I’m honored to be guest posting on my friend Jen’s website, weightlesschronicles.com.  She asked me to share a story that people can relate to, and there are few things as relatable as feeling overweight.

I have felt fat my whole life.  

Growing up, everyone would comment on how skinny my sister was.  They would tell me I had a pretty smile, or nice hair… never that I was thin.  Whenever this happened, I heard, “you’re fat.”  Of course that’s not at all what my well-intentioned family meant, but that doesn’t matter, does it?  In my mind it was settled; I was fat.

There’s one moment that sticks out in my mind to this day as an indicator of my unhealthy mindset.  It was 25 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday.  It was a couple of weeks before the 8th grade dance, the social event of the year.  Even more important, I was going with a boy – my first boyfriend.  

Me at 14 in my beautiful size 8 dress.

My step-mother had taken me shopping for a dress and I had amazingly found one that I loved.  It was a taupe off the shoulder, A-line dress that fell to just above my knees.  It had the most gorgeous muted jewel-toned flowers on it, and I loved it.  Wearing it made me feel beautiful.  But not because it was a pretty dress.  Because it was a size 8.  In fact, when I came home and told my dad that we had found a dress, I proudly added, “It’s a size 8!”

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