Size is Relative, Beauty Comes in All Sizes

Look, I'm never going to be a size 2--and that's okay. My bone structure and muscle mass does not lend itself to that size.

Right now I'm a size 16. My ideal body is a healthy size 12. Over time with my positive attitude and the changes I have made and continue to make to my lifestyle I will get there. But that isn't really my point.

My point is that we are all made differently. I happen to come from sturdy stock...I don't think there were any lithe royalty in my lineage. My ancestors were farmers and the like. And a lot of them were poor. So my build was very useful. I am strong..."strong like booll"...oh how I wish accents worked in blogs....anyway, my body strength I'm sure came in handy. Maybe we didn't have a bull (or cow or horse) and had to pull the plows ourselves. I could have done that.

We can learn to appreciate our differences. I used to be envious of the delicate boned beauty pageant types, or people like my best friend who had long legs that seemed to reach her arm pits. This did nothing to help me. All it did was diminish my own sense of worth. It was no more beneficial than it would be to be jealous that someone had green eyes or blonder hair.

By appreciating our differences we can better love ourselves. There are things that tall leggy gals can do that I can't (like be a Rockette, for one!) and there are things that I can do that the showgirls can't. Guess that makes us even. Not the same, but even.

One of the greatest lessons I got on beauty in all its varieties was when I was working at the swimming pool as a very fat lifeguard (I was fat, but I was strong and fast in the water!) I saw people of every size, shape, color and shade. And I learned to see how beautiful they all were.

It took me a while to learn to see the beauty in me...but once I did, amazingly, that is when I started to drop my fat shell!

Now I'm learning to be the best that I can be. Not the skinniest. The best. That may mean that by some people's standards I will always be "large"...that's okay...if I were a latte, I guess I would be a venti!