I don't understand why some people feel the need to comment on other people's weight. It gives the idea that weight is extremely important even though it really isn't. Not unless it starts interfering with the most important thing which would be health, and even then it's none of anyone's business unless that person makes it their business.
The reason I'm writing about this is that this year I lost a bit of weight and some people have commented. Well, actually two people have commented that I remember although it could very well be more, and those people were my mum, and the lady in charge of my pilates class.
When my mum mentioned that now I looked really slim at first I felt happy. But that shortly gave way to the questions 'What was wrong with my body shape before?' and 'Did I look bad before I lost weight?'. It's such a backhanded comment to give, since it implies that something was wrong before the weight was lost.
That the lady in charge of my pilates class noticed that I lost a bit of weight was not so surprising since it is her job to look at everyone's body and check if it's positioned correctly. It is kind of surprising that she commented on it but I guess I have been going to the class for a while so there was a sense of familiarity. She just asked 'Have you lost weight?' which is probably one of the better ways of mentioning weight since she didn't ask it in a way that suggested judgement. The thing that I did notice was that she got an almost envious expression on her face, like she envied that I lost weight and made me think that she was unhappy with her own weight which is absolutely ridiculous because she's one of those extremely fit people and I seriously doubt that she's overweight. My reaction to this was disbelief. How can she be envious of my weight loss? She has no idea how it came about. It wasn't on purpose, it was a medicine side effect that made me lose all desire to eat food, even when I was extremely hungry. I was stuck between not wanting to eat because of no appetite, and needing to eat because otherwise I'd get a migraine. A complete lose-lose situation. I suppose she wasn't to know, but still...
The thing that annoys me the most about all this is that it's had an effect on how I make decisions. I was extremely torn when I had to stop taking this medicine that was doing nothing good for me and quite a few bad things because I knew that there was no point in continuing it and that it would be better for me to stop it, but I didn't want to put the weight back on and even wanted to lose a bit more so part of me wanted to stay on it. Now I'm on a medicine that has a side effect of increased appetite and weight gain so I worry all the time about gaining weight. Before all these comments I didn't think much about my weight. It was a healthy weight and I did plan on trying to eat healthier so I could lose some naturally, but I never felt any pressure to. Now I feel quite pressured to keep my current weight, not because I want to for myself, but because I feel as though I need to to live up to people's expectations of what 'looks nice'. It's like I didn't have enough to worry about...
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