Must i watch my weight all the time?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been fighting with my weight since I was 16. And that means that I spent most of my adolescent years and all my adult life, cutting out sugars, ice creams, dairy products, chocolates, pastries, etc.

I remember that while I was growing up and I had to go on dates, the guys seemed to look at me funny when instead of asking for the usual meat pie/ sausage roll/ doughnuts and drinks, I would ask for salad, fish and water. While my friends relished their ice creams, chocolates, pastries and all those goodies, I went for all the bitter tasteless ones. Not so interesting if u ask me.

And you know what beats me? I’ve never really gotten it. I’ve been a UK size 12 for the past one and half years or more. Luckily, I even came down from UK size 16 to 14, before I got stuck on 12. I’ve been trying to cut it down to 10 for the past one year but that just hasn’t worked. Recently, I started to notice signs of small bulges here and there and for me that meant more weeks of strict dieting, detox, workouts, etc.

I’m sure my story is not strange to most women. Since the early 90s, our society has changed the SI unit for measuring beauty and sexiness from the usual rounded African- beauty standard, to the Angelina Jolie -skinny looks.

And that’s why we have outfits like the short skirts, pencil jeans, shorts, tight dresses and the like. To make matters worse, all our men watch TV, are on facebook, twitter, and other social networking sites and so the ideal woman has to have a body like Kim Kardashian, or JLO, or (let’s come back home) Omotola Jalade. It also doesn’t really matter if u’ve had a child or 2, because, so have Omotola Jalade and J.Lo (ouch!).

Hey I know someone is going to say stuff like “Beauty comes from within” and “It doesn’t matter if you’re fat or slim, you have to accept yourself the way you are”. We know all that. But the reality of the situation is: it does feel good to be slim and gorgeous. There’s an added self confidence that comes from knowing that you’re slim and fit.

And so I’ve had to ask myself: “For how long are women supposed to fight the weight battle?”

Seems like a life sentence if you ask me. So, I think the answer to that question is “Forever” (yikes!!!).

Or what do you guys think? Can a woman ever completely lose weight and stay in shape forever?