How often do you look in the mirror and just…sigh? If you're like me, the moment you see your reflection, your brain begins to bubble with sad, anxious thoughts: "What happened to me? How did I let it get this bad? Why don't I work out?"
If I allow it, abusive thoughts like these can plague me for hours, no matter what excitement the day might hold. In fact, many beautiful experiences have been ruined by such toxic self-hatred. Once that mean little voice starts yapping, it's hard to shut it up, and it tends to blacken any mood.
But self-declared "fat and happy" mom Joni Edelman is here to say, "Knock it off!"
Joni, a 40-year-old mother of five, has seen every number on the scale you can imagine. At her skinniest, five years ago, Joni weighed 123 pounds. Her athletic body turned heads, drew compliments, and even inspired some lewd proposals. Yet, being at her smallest size since she was 17 did not bring Joni the happiness she was expecting.
Personally, after reading Joni's honest insights and exploring her photos through the years, I feel inspired to treat myself with more kindness, to find confidence in who and where I am now, and to know that we are more beautiful than the media wants us to believe.
Please SHARE Joni's remarkable story if you know any women who need to love themselves!
Despite weighing 123 pounds and wearing a size four, Joni (left) was never satisfied. "I looked at this photo after it was taken and thought I looked fat," she writes.
To attain her slim figure, Joni was obsessively researching and monitoring every bite of food, consuming only 1,000 calories per day. She also ran 35 miles each week.
While at her thinnest, Joni typically only got three hours of sleep each night. With her strict diet and intense workouts, she completely lost her period. "I was not happy," she said.
Then, life took the reigns. Joni no longer obsessed over gym visits and her caloric intake.
"I attained the physique in the 'after' photo after losing one sweet baby girl; after being married, divorced, married; after a half dozen moves; after a broken leg and a broken ankle; after catching a dozen babies not my own as a labor and delivery nurse; after ushering more than a dozen people into death as a hospice nurse," Joni writes.
Now, Joni says, "there is a stillness, a joy, and a peace I've never had."
"The world wants you to want to be thin," says Joni. "There are whole industries built on your insecurity. They are bullsh**."
"The world wants you to believe that thin and beautiful equals happy. It wants you to believe that you're only worthy of love, and life, if you are beautiful. And beautiful people just aren't fat."
"Or maybe they are."
"You want to really blow people's minds? Try this at home: Be fat and happy. Be unapologetically fat. Wear a bikini, and mean it. Eat pizza and ice cream and enjoy it. Drink up your life and a bottle of wine, and make no apologies."
Please SHARE if you think this message needs to be shared with the world!
