Biggie Smalls

Lately, as in the past 8 years, I've had a really difficult time keeping an appropriate amount of weight on my body. Part of it has been due to breastfeeding, but part of it has just been due to my lack of desire to eat as much food as my high metabolism requires in order to keep my body fully functioning. This has resulted in a lack of energy, decreased bone health, and some image issues that come along with being underweight (i.e. having the body of a 12 year old boy instead of a 26 year old woman). The lowest healthy weight for my height is 121 pounds, which is the most I have ever weighed in my life. I achieved that weight in my junior year of high school from a combination of stuffing my face, weightlifting 7th period, and moving huge irrigation pipes in the summer. So I have made that weight my initial goal. I've made an increased effort in the past couple of months to really try to eat as often as I could remember to, whether I was hungry or not. I've been taking an extra helping of everything I like, and have been snacking all day long, every day. I have still been eating healthily, I just eat a lot more of everything. I added a lot of soy protein to my diet, and to the diet of my children. On top of that, I've been trying to be extra active this summer by going on a walk every day and running around with the kiddos and doing yard work and such. So here's the exciting part (for me, anyways): I've gained 5 pounds! It's been a pretty steady weight gain of a pound every few weeks and now I am only 2 pounds short of my goal. Moral of the story?: If you are cooking good food, please feed it to my face!

Disclaimer: If you are someone who is overweight, and you want to say something to me about how you wish that you had to gain weight instead of lose it and you'd trade me places any day or whatever other thing you would say to minimize my struggle, that's fine, and funny, and I appreciate the good-natured jab. However, keep in mind that this is a story about a commitment to a healthy weight and working hard to achieve it. Just because my body type is the kind that the media glorifies, I have to be just as careful to keep it healthy as anyone else.