Sunday, February 21, 2010

The “O” Word (No, It’s Not The One You Think)

A couple of years ago I had a slight accident while sledding with my kids.  I took a step to push them down the hill, but my knee didn’t like that motion—I felt a snap, searing pain, and a torn meniscus was born.  Needless to say, surgery was in my future.

As I sat and waited to go into surgery, my chart was left on the bed with me.  I was curious to see what was on there so I picked it up and began to read.  And there it was…the “O” word.  It was just sitting there, staring up at me--Obese.  This was the word that the anesthesiologist had used to describe me.  WHAT!?  I am NOT obese.  I’m just a little chubby, right?  Wrong!  I was that word, and seeing it on my chart felt like that doctor had just punched me right square in my “obeseness.”

This word just sat there with me in the back of my head for these past two years.  It stung in a way that I had never felt before.  It should have been my wake-up call to get healthy, but all it did was make me feel so much worse about myself.  Good-bye self esteem.  And as usual, food made everything better…temporarily.  It’s that vicious cycle that so many women know all too well…feel bad, eat to feel happy and comforted, feel worse.

So now I am taking action to change that description of me.  I will no longer be described as obese.  I’m too many other things—kind, caring, loyal, funny and sweet are a few that come to mind right now.  And soon I will add healthy, fit and thin to that list.  And who knows, maybe even hot and sexy too.  We’ll see…

2 comments:

  1. I love this post! You're so brave to go there. And bravo for recognizing all those beautiful things about yourself - we all see those things in you too!

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  2. The day my Wii fit told me I was obese was tough. I remember lying to a stupid game that my clothes weigh 5 pounds so I could at least simply be overweight. You're so right about labels though. They can't begin to describe everything about us so we must work to get rid of the ones that might apply to us, but make us unhappy.

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