Congratulations Blue team on another awesome victory this week!
YAY!!
And special congrats to PageLynn, Beck, KayakGal, and ILRPinkGirl! Way to go!!!
And everybody else who posted a loss, congrats on that too! Those who didn't, no worries, just keep going, it's a marathon, not a sprint.
Soon2Bfitgirl, I had to go back to last week's thread to read your post, I must have missed it before. I can't say that I know what it feels like to have people be more inclined to hang with me after weight loss yet, but I can imagine it. However, I would like to offer an alternative perspective to consider in regards to those who seem to value others on their size first.
While it seems quite obvious that people who don't accept obese people in their normal circle of friends are shallow and ignorant, it is sometimes helpful to take into account the effect that societal pressures have had on them as well. Though the obese people usually bear the brunt of the hits from societal views, thin people are also always comparing themselves and their opinions to the people around them just as much as we obese people are. So, when they experience the constant barrage of information from every media facet known to man telling them that obesity is this horrible, unacceptable thing, they believe it, just as many of us do. And in so doing, they may feel pressure to conform to the "accepted" attitude in society, lest they be singled out from the crowd and lumped in with the "unaccepted" people. Everyone does this, it's like an unconscious security measure.
Also because they are so convinced by these overwhelming views that obesity is akin to a disease like cancer or aids or whatever, their natural instinct may be to stay away from somebody who is "afflicted" with such a disease. They may know logically that they cannot "catch" it by being near a person, but still, there is often an unconscious fear of association with something they feel is deadly and bad. Even the people who berate us or condemn us are probably coming from a place of unconscious fear, rather than an honest dislike of the people we are or the body shapes we have.
I'm not saying that the way these people act is right or wrong or anything like that, I'm just saying that even as we have a set of beliefs about ourselves and our physical well being, so do they and what we feel as overt judgment from the thin people out there, may actually not be judgment but fear that is projected unconsciously as judgment.
Another possibility to consider is that in general, when something about somebody tends to bug us, more often than not, that thing that they do is something that we do as well on some level, that we don't like about ourselves either. For instance, I have a really hard time with my sister-in-law sometimes because she is bossy and presumptuous. But if I turn that around and look at my own behaviors, I can also see that in some ways, I do the same thing, and I don't like that about myself either. So, in regards to thin people versus overweight people... it could be that they see in us something that they don't like about themselves, and they are reacting to that when they are putting us down or not befriending us or whatever. /shrug Just a thought.
... Hmmm... I hope that made sense.
Anyway, I do appreciate the feelings you have toward those who treat you differently now. It does kinda suck that they can't see it in themselves.
So, this week I have been looking for a decent cookbook or recipes that will help me count my calories and so on. I've got a ton of diet cookbooks, but I really just want one that will give me a bunch of 400 calorie meals, etc. The problem is that because I am in Sweden, I can't get a lot of the products that are available so easily in the States, so when I'm looking at all these great recipes I've found, I have to discount most of them because I can't get some of the ingredients very easily, and I want to make this a lifestyle change, ya know?
Being American, I have always found that Swedes have an incredibly boring diet. They don't usually do side dishes at all, and they seem to have very limited choices in general. So, one of the things I complain to my American friends about has always been the food being boring here. LOL
Well, now this is probably just due to google translation, but I found it hilarious and I wanted to share it with you guys. I was browsing a Swedish bookstore site today, and I came across this book in the list:
How funny is that??
I think I'm going to send that to all my American friends just to prove that it's on purpose! LOL
Have a great week blue team! Let's crush 'em again next week!
Go Blue!!