Goal Number 38: Not Criticize My Body - Completed!

Did you know that your weight is as programmed in your genetic makeup as your height is? No, really. Look around to your family, your mother and your sisters and your cousins. Maybe there's one really lucky one who's tall and slender (my sister is). But really, look at their body types. Don't you look pretty similar?

I've known for my whole life that I resemble my mother, my grandmother, my great-grandmother, and my great-great-grandmother. There's a picture in the basement of the five of us taken when I was only a baby. Obviously, my resemblance isn't apparent, but theirs is. And we all have the same body type. Good enough, but we have the bulge around the hips/stomach area.

I was reading an article today in my English textbook. It was really interesting. It talked about how exercise and how it doesn't always help with weight loss. However, it still has it's benefits. Those who completed the study of a good diet and exercise not always lost weight; those who didn't lose any still lowered their cholesterol and blood pressure.

I mean, think about it. I know that I've been on diets before, and they've worked (Prom Dress Disaster Diet of 2009 was the most "successful"), at least for the time being. But after I stopped dieting, the weight came right on back, and the fat seemed to have brought it's friends. According to the article, dieting causes your body to think it's starving, and when you stop dieting, your body stores more fat than it would normally.

So today, I was able to look in the mirror at my hips and what I affectionately call my 'Buddha belly', and think that it wasn't my fault. Sure, my eating habits could improve and I'm not going to stop exercising, but I'm happy not to criticize myself for something that isn't my fault.