I love the grocery store. I love whole foods, I love my little local store .5 miles from my house, and even the grocery store in Germany where I could not read any of the signs. Frankly, I just like being surrounded by food.
However lately this has REALLY been ticking me off every time I go to the store:
right before I tossed it out the window...just kidding 
It looks like an innocent banana, but hang on…read what it says!
It says to “lose weight.”
When I see this I start thinking “shut up, you stupid bananas you don’t know me”. Immediately, I realize I am having a conversation in my head with bananas and there is probably a diagnosis for that in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV).
Our society does not delineate between healthy and skinny. There is something about weight loss and pictures of skinny people everywhere. But there is a HUGE difference between healthy and skinny!
My freshman year of college I was obsessed with numbers on the scale. I would weight myself everyday…all day. I remember one night having a dream nightmare one night that I weighed myself and I had gained four pounds. I woke up in frenzy and went directly to the bath room to weigh myself - whew! Thank goodness I had not gained four pounds!
I would allow myself to have one full meal a day. It would be something like greasy Chinese or 5 cookies and ice cream. Other than that meal I would eat a fruit or pour the packets that season ramen noodles into hot water and drink it. I would not eat the noodles, just the packet.
I know this all sounds crazy, but it worked.
I finally got burnt out on starving myself and allowing my self-esteem to be defined by numbers on a scale and quit all of the nonsense.
It has taken me a long time and a lot of work to achieve ”healthy”, but I feel like I have done it. I say that humbly knowing that “healthy” is always a work in progress and must be maintained daily. I am not skinny, and I weight more than I did in college. However now I eat a MINIMUM of 3 healthy meals a day and of course I save room for splurges when they are necessary.
I exercise – I run 15 -20 miles a week, I go to body pump, I do Pilates - bottom line I feel good.
I wish the bananas our society would stop putting so much focus on being skinny and losing weight and put more emphasis on being healthy. Perhaps then we would start seeing results.
What a great post! I’m glad you steered me over here! Wow, the ramen salt water is something I would have done in college too (why were we so silly when we were in college getting a higher education??!)
Yes, there is a difference b/w healthy and skinny – I’m glad you are healthy and feel balanced. That is what we all hope to achieve.
And love your DSM IV Talkingtobananasosis. Can’t say I blame you!
lol thanks for the technical name “talkingtobananasosis”
Oops…I may be a little guilty for getting you to eat the greasy Chinese in college.
What an interesting post. I have never noticed those stickers on the bananas I buy but I’d probably be rather irritated as well.
I am so glad you are in a better place with food and your weight. As long as you are happy, that’s all that matters!
I completely agree! It’s more important to be healthy than skinny — too many people forget that — because many skinny people aren’t healthy. I know which I’d rather be.
Love this post! I saw another post regarding the banana with the “lose weight” sticker. Total crap if you ask me. I get that obesity is a huge issue around the world, but so are eating disorders! And disordered eating. Aaghh. And we put so much focus on LOSING weight, when it should be more about balance, and living a healthy life style. Food is good. That’s the bottom line. And we’re made to enjoy food. It’s frustrating that there has to be such extremes taken on both sides of this.
Great post.
The whole healthy v skinny thing has always irked me too. I am absolutely healthier than I was at my thinnest, but I wonder what people would do if I put the two pictures side by side and asked them to pick which girl looked healthier? Definitely tiny madeline!
Hey Brittany! I found your blog
I really liked reading this post. It stinks that you went through that during college, but everything happens for a reason…and I can say that you’ve overcame it and then some.
I’m glad we are friends! I think I’ll be learning many things from you!! Tty-soon!!
Ris
Great post, and so true. It’s so easy to get caught up in the numbers, but I bet you look so much better now and feel so much better too. It would be really difficult to be as active as you are now on one meal a day.
You’re right, being healthy is what matters. Thanks for the reminder.
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