I'm WHAT!!!???

As a means of becoming more focused in my healthy living plans and in order to keep my goals interesting and appropriately challenging, I've been doing quite a bit of online exploration. This weekend I've been a bit focused on body types. I'm struggling with this difference between being an apple or a pear.

As women, we are often classified into various roles and definitions. What might be most damaging are the somewhat rigid categories of body types. Yesterday, I read all sorts of ridiculous names for women's bodys: banana, rectangle, triangle, hourglass (that one is standard). When I was younger, I always felt like thin women had a wide variety of body types. Us voluptuous ladies were stuck with one: curvy. What the hell does that even mean? Isn't that supposed to be a good thing? In any case, as I've dug a bit deeper into the idiotic classifications that God-knows-who created, I've learned that overweight women now have two different major body types-apple or pear. Supposedly apples carry their weight above their waist and pears are keeping it below the belt. For an added bonus, dear readers, check out this website's version of female body types (personally, I love the Boteroesque).

Anyone that knows me knows that I often find what I'm sure are hilarious names and jokes about my derrière. I've always thought of myself as a pear, the apparently more attractive, nominally healthier type. But I also carry weight in my upper arms, breasts, and face. Those are above my waist, right? So what does that make me? Does it matter?

On top of all of this, I've also discovered what I now think are destructive BMI calculators. After using 3 different calculators, with various questions and levels of self-proclaimed validity, the results are all the same: obese. Although I'm only about 1-2 points into this category, the word still rings clear in my brain. Unfortunately, I haven't weighed myself since beginning this transition, so I suppose it's possible for the ratio to be slightly less than what I've seen. I have to lose about 20 pounds to just be overweight, and about 40 pounds to be on the heavier side of "normal." To put all of this in perspective, "normal" for me, is about 175 (I'm not there right now). When I came home from Uganda feeling great about myself, I was 170. Both are obese. When I lost like 35 lbs. in high school, and was weighing in at 165, my lowest in a long time, I was still in the "overweight" category.

So again comes my favorite question-What does it all mean?

Does this actually matter? I guess I don't know. Does anyone really know? It's so easy to find what seem like legitimate articles that tell you it doesn't matter, and then another that swears by the BMI. Maybe it's a matter of preference. I do know that I hate the word obese, and I've been trying so hard to avoid that classification. Look at the ladies above. At first I planned to explain how the girl on the far right is not only the most beautiful but also airbrushed and unrealistic, but I think it's destructive for anyone to speak like that. We are all beautiful, no matter the type. We just need to find strength to admit it.

In any case, I also need to check in with y'all on my progress. This past week has been hell on my eating plans. I haven't been setting goals, but only a few times did I sneak an unwelcome snack. I've also been drinking water, more than I used to (which was none, btw), but still less than I was. I think this week I need to be more vigilant. I want to get back to how I was feeling when I started blogging again. I was on top of the world. I can keep that up!