LadyShadow: Awwww, thank you so much for the validation on waiting in the room for an hour! You reflected back to me and yes it does make sense. I am feeling better about all of that today. In terms of weight and body image, I am very sorry you have to deal with it too. It seems like most people who are "overweight" or just..."not thin" feel this way as well (badly about it). I am reading 2 books right now that are amazing in terms of addressing these issues. One is called Health at Every Size, and the other is the classic book Intuitive Eating. They both really stress that It's not about weight or size. It's about learning to love the body you're in, as well as taking action to take care of physical health. And taking action to take care of physical health does not have to = losing weight. I highly recommend the book Health at Every Size by Linda Bacon.

It's funny, I say all of this, but I still struggle with my own body image! I think maybe a lot of it has to do with having been a smaller size, then having a med change a couple years ago, and gaining weight from that. My weight has gone up and down and up and down with every med change. If I were just a set weight, I feel like I'd be able to settle my thoughts better about whatever that set weight and size was. I was actually this size a few years ago, and for a while too. I just remember it being easier to...accept myself as larger. Then I had a med change, some difficult life transitions too, lost weight due to that, and people left and right were saying "You look amazing! you lost so much weight!" It was painful. Like, I had no idea I didn't look amazing before that to them. It really hurt.

Anyway, sorry for writing a whole book. It's a topic I'm passionate about. I do recommend those two books though that I mentioned above, as well as the book Shrill by Lindy West, if you want to laugh as well as feel empowered about body image. And thank you again.

Cepheid!: Thank you for checking on me and asking! I am feeling better about this. Hugs