You aren't what you eat

As a family of 8, there's a short list of things I can't live without. 

Topping that list is our double stack washer and dryer. Those suckers run 6-7 days a week and sometimes multiple times a day. Don't ask me why, with all the laundry we do, that we still find ourselves running frantically around the house five minutes before a game searching for the right jersey. And don't get my started on the missing sock mystery. 

When one of our beloved work horses stops working, we call somebody to fix it......quickly. 

The next day, a trusty A&E truck pulls in our driveway and Don gives me the grim news that one dryer is broken and the other one is on its last leg. To fix both would be almost as expensive as ordering new ones. 

I give the kids the bad news as I'm driving them to soccer and one of them pipes up and says, "that guy looked like he ate a lot of food". 

*Long pause while I collect my thoughts. Older daughter sighs heavily and remarks, oh boy, here we go.*

"So you think because Don has a bigger body, he eats a lot of food?"

"Yeah, that's what it looks like, Mom."

"I can see where you would think that if someone eats a lot of food that their body might be bigger, but did you know that's actually not true?"

"What?"

I know, I was just as surprised as you are reading that last sentence. In fact, people in larger bodies don't always eat more than people in straight sized bodies and often times they actually eat less food than people in smaller bodies. Food and exercise aren't the *only* things that affect our body size. Our environment, genetics, sleep, medications, stress levels and pain all play into our body size. Even more important to understand is the stigma that people in larger bodies face has been proven to be both physically and psychologically damaging. Keep in mind that there's no safe and effective way to permanently lose weight for a vast majority of people (more than 95% of people).

In kid speak, that sounds a lot more like, "There are lots of things besides food that affect our body size, but the most important thing for you to know is that all bodies are good bodies. Your size never determines what kind of person you are. It's important to eat foods you like, get enough food so you feel satisfied and know that trying to change your body doesn't work". 

In typical five year old fashion, the next comment was, "When are the new dryers coming?" 

Not soon enough, kiddo, not soon enough. 

This week, call out a friend or family member in a gentle way when they promote a stereotype of any kind. Normalizing differences of all kinds will help make your world and mine a better place.