5 Kilos
It’s no secret that I used to be a porky kid. I refer to it as my ‘festively rotund’ phase, but the fact is when I stopped eating mars bars, company shares dropped. Even though I was never large enough that I risked fusing to my lounge, it was good that I lost a few kilos when I was about 18. But whilst I’m a very happy person with a relatively healthy attitude to my body, deep down I think that I’d be even happier if I was 5 kilos lighter.
But would I really be happier?
A couple of weeks ago I was walking around in China Town when I overheard a woman on the phone ahead of me. She was attractive, enviable thin and fashionably dressed. But my fit of the jealousies were interrupted when she started talking loudly on the phone.
“Yeah I’ve started a diet, Sarah’s on it and she’s lost about 7 kilos. I began today. Yeah, I’ll tell you how it goes.”
I looked on shocked wondering which diet offered bone removal, because that was the only way she could possible drop another kilo. Piously shaking my head in disapproval, I was taken by surprise when another girl sidled up next to me. I don’t know if she was chugging down crazy juice, but she turned to me with excitement and said, “Ooh, that women knows how to lose weight? Share! Share!”
Never being one to leave an awkward situation with grace, I pretended to chuckle and agree and immediately took a sharp left hand turn into the first open store.
Isn’t it odd that women find camaraderie in weight loss? Didn’t we once link arms and fight for important shit like, you know, the right to vote?
I concede that these women may not be a great indication of society. After all, I do tend to have a highly tuned ‘crazy-beacon’, which brings window-lickers of a broad variety into my personal space. But, apart from delusions of being fat, these women seemed sane.
So I ask the question, what’s the point being skinny when you’re going to think you’re fat anyway?
It’s possible that women get stuck thinking the perfect body is just over the horizon? Lets be honest; perfection is a myth. Wouldn’t it be easier to stop chasing fantasies and put energy into just being happy?
