Fat Tuesday: The First Blog Post

I have a confession to make:

I am not thin.

Okay. That's not quite right. A lot of people are "not thin." What I am is actually called "fat."

Well, maybe that's not quite telling the truth either. According to every website with a BMI thingy, I am not only fat, I am "obese."

Phew! I feel so much better getting that off my chest, because I would hate for you to believe you were reading the blog of a person who is in her target weight range, and then find out it was all a lie! LIES!

(This is a pretty accurate picture of my face...except I'm not really that blurry. And I tried to curl my hair, so it's a bit funkier than usual.)

So, why am I telling you this? Because I've thought about this--a lot. And I've come to this conclusion:

I am absolutely, positively, truly not my weight.

Do I want to be healthy and live a good, long life, hanging out with my kids, writing novels, and making art?

Yep!

Is the only way I can have this good, long, healthy life by constantly dieting and thinking about all the foods I CAN'T have or what I CAN have or how BAD I am for eating something that I SHOULDN'T?

Oh, heavens, I hope not, because I've already lived that life. More than once, in fact. And every time I lose weight I--wait for it--gain it back.

What does this have to do with my meandering musings? Well, it's this:

I am starting to be okay with who I am in the body I have right now. And I want to have discussions with you about loving yourself as you are. I really hope you're all smarter than I am on this subject, because I could really use the help.

And I'm going to blog about this topic on Tuesdays. Hence the title "Fat Tuesday."

Did you know that Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday? So, what I want Fat Tuesdays to be is not griping about weight and diets and the fact that clothing designers think "plus-size" ladies all want to be dressed like the mother of the bride when they go to events that require formal wear (yeah, once, my husband gave me a nice big gift card to Sears so I could find an outfit for a dining out that required me to dress up. I couldn't find ANYTHING that looked my age, so I ended up buying my first iPod with it instead).

(My body to go along with my face. Check out those shoes!)

Fat Tuesday will be a celebration along with some contemplation and a large dose of self-love. I hope you'll join me for Fat Tuesdays. And I'd love for you to leave comments with topics surrounding this issue that you would be interesting in delving into more deeply.

AND if you have a plus-size fashion blog or a website dedicated to loving yourself, I'd love to know that too!