Howdy!
So yesterday I had a rather... interesting experience that brought back a few memories that I would have rather left buried wayyyy back in the parts of my brain that include all the useless info that my prof's swore was practical and I haven't used in the past few years, old N'Sync songs, and the picture of the way I wore my bangs swooped over to the side like a wave all through elementary school- you know- that place where you keep the things you would rather just completely forget!
I'm guessing I'm not the only one who has ever had an awkward experience when someone makes an attempt at "reaching out to you" to help you lose weight?! I've shared before that even though I've been overweight my entire life- VERY few people have ever said anything to me about it. No, I mean VERY few. I think maybe 2 members of my family have said something about it in my entire life- and obviously friends aren't going to bring it up so me being obese was pretty easy to ignore...except for those random occurences when some random person would say something or offer some piece of advice because they can clearly see you need it. I know they mean well, but it's like..."HELLO- do you think I had no clue that I am overweight? Thank you SO much for letting me know that!" lol
One of these such memories is quite comical. You see all through high school I went to church at least 3 times a week and would pretty much sit in the same spot every time- and although I went to a very large church, it seemed that the same people would sit in the same section every week so you got to at least recognize some faces. One of the people who always sat either in my row or in a row around me was this little old lady who had to have been no younger than 80 (I think she told me once that she was 87- but I don't remember)- she was short, hunched over, had red hair, fake eyelashes, and always wore bright red lipstick. Most of the time if we talked it would just be to say hello or a quick "how are you?"- this probably went on for about 2 years until one day she came up to me before the service and said something similar to this: "You know, you have a very pretty face, and if you could just get some of this weight off of you, you would feel so much better and be so beautiful. You know- I am a dietician and I could bring you some information on how to get this weight off if you want it...." And of course I couldn't be rude to her so I just said, "Oh thank you, sure I would love some information!" And wouldn't you know the next week she brought me this packet on "The Grapefruit Diet"which she swore would melt the pounds away! Clearly, that didn't happen and I think she finally gave up on me but I always felt a little bad about how much she must have pitied me.
Situations like that made me laugh more than they do anything else- people aren't trying to be hurtful (and for me they usually weren't) but it's always, always, always awkward!
Well, wouldn't you know it I got the pleasure of enjoying another one of those awkward moments just yesterday! When I logged onto facebook, I saw that I had an event invitation from an lady that helped me put on an event awhile back- when I clicked on it to see what it was I discovered that it was a page about how if you know anyone that needs to lose weight you need to tell them about this amazing acai diet pill blah blah blah. Is it just me or would you not be embaressed to send someone something like that!? haha She was basically saying- Tiffany, you're overweight, I know you, so you should probably check this site out but I don't want to talk to you about it in person! I hope this isn't reading like I'm mad- because I'm not AT ALL- I really just think it's funny!
I guess I've got to commend these brave souls for stepping out and saying something that is not easy to say, b/c I know it comes from a place of concern- but I can't lie- I really wanted to send her a message back and say... thanks for the even invitation but I think the almost 40lbs I've lossed is proof that I'm doing okay without acai! Buuuuut I didn't :) However, the thing that jump started me on this journey was a friend asking if I would like to do The Biggest Loser Challenge with them...and the rest is history in the making!
I'm wondering- what do you all think... Is it okay to say something about a person's weight to them? Or should you just assume they know and let them figure it out for themselves?