I was advised today to eat well, exercise, and lose my belly. Well, to be honest, this is advice I get from a particular person very regularly. And perhaps if I didn’t eat well, exercise, and think I had a belly worth being concerned about, I’d heed her advice.
I’ve spent the morning speculating as to the reasons behind her need to tell me that she thinks I’m overweight, considering fluctuations in my weight, my apparent eating habits, and cultural background. I’ve been chit-chatting with friends, discussing what I should do, being generous and thinking about how much of her advice I should heed, and commiserating about what it is to be made to feel insecure over something that wasn’t a problem.
The truth is, it doesn’t matter that I do eat sensibly, get exercise, and like my body. There will always just be some people who don’t know this, think otherwise, and presume that it is valuable for them to tell me so.
