Thin...and Loving It!

I have a positive body image. Well, some parts may be entirely delusional, but if I like myself with conviction - false belief or otherwise - that's a good thing. I learnt from a tender age not to take things at face value. Looks-aren't-everything was my mantra because, well, I was more brainy than I was pretty. Smacks of sore loser-ism, I know. I'd just rather call it positive body image. After all, my husband (then boyfriend) saw beyond my pimples and orthodontic contraptions, and he always thinks himself lucky to have me! (All husbands think that of their wives, I reckon.)

So why did it bother me so when more than 3 people I met over the weekend commented, similarly, that I had become thinner? Well, thin is supposedly good. I've been thin all my life. But now I'm thinner! Those remarks did not have a complimentary ring to them; they were more you-poor-thin-thing-what-happened-to-you kind of remarks. Do you know what's disturbing? The fact that I was sufficiently bothered!

I weighed myself that very night. I hadn't done that in a very long time. I just wasn't weight-conscious (remember, I have a positive body image). I discovered that I hadn't gained a single ounce since the fifth form! Boon or bane? I feel healthy. I eat heartily. I am clinically euthyroid. My body mass index is well within the normal range for Asians. Why was I bothered at all?

(Chant) Positive body image...positive body image...

I guess I allowed myself a moment of frivolity there. There are a lot of people out there whose obesity is no choice of their own, or underweight persons who are that way because of medical reasons. Me? I should just be glad that there are labels that carry my size, or a seat that fits my rear, or food that I can eat without ever having to count every calorie. The next time someone calls me thin, I'll thank him for the compliment!