Think before you speak

I had dinner with a college friend last night. She’s a personal trainer at a local gym. I told her how lately I’ve been in a pretty rough head space; my weight is still up, I can’t seem to do anything right to make it go down, eating ANYTHING is suddenly very stressful to me (that’s another story for another post). Suffice it to say, I’m feeling pretty awful about myself right now.

She was asking me about my eating and workout habits. I told her what I eat and how I workout. Then she pushed me into crazytown with her next comment:

“You know Melissa, you’re a big girl. You just are. So you’ll always be bigger.”

I’m sorry, what?! Just because I’m 5’9" does NOT make me a “big” girl. Yes, I’m up about 10-15 pounds from where I’d like to be. But 5 of those are water weight (you can’t gain 5 pounds in 2 days. Even I know this). And I weigh 165 pounds. I wear anywhere from a size 6 to a size 10. Geez. 

Talk about a good way to send someone into a tailspin. I’m already freaking out about my body; how it feels and looks, looking decent in a fitted bridesmaid dress in a month, and running a half marathon in 2 weeks. I don’t need someone to push me over the ledge when I’m quite capable of doing that myself, thankyouverymuch!

harmph.

Her advice? Up my protein, limit my fruit intake, lift weights, and write down what I eat again. Things I know to do. (although I really like fruit, so that kind of sucks.)

Lessons learned here? Think before you speak, you never know the impact your words can have on another person.