Does thinking you're fat make you fat?

fitjessie813

Look at the little girl in this picture!!! It's me!!!!!! If I had to guess, I was about 8 years old in this picture. I don't own any pictures of me as a child (well... very few), so I love it when family and friends tag me on old pictures like this because I get to see what I looked like..... I look like a normal little girl, right? Well, I already considered myself fat at this age.... Can you believe that? I am looking at more and more pictures of the younger me and I am disgusted at the distortion of body image I had growing up. I clearly remember kids calling me "FAT" in school... but I don't know why.... I was not fat!!!! I grew up believing I was, did that believe change the perception of others around me? Did my believe that was fat make me fat? It is so sad to see I suffered so many years being so critical with myself when I was perfect!!!! I was a perfect, healthy, little girl.

Be careful what you say to your children... insensitive words can harm their delicate self esteem....make sure you make them aware of how wonderful they are just the way they are! Make sure you tell them that sometimes kids in school say things they don't mean. Make sure you tell them they are who they are not who others say they are!

Pearsquared

I was the same way, though from the influences of classmates rather than my family. I did track the second half of Elementary school, and was probably in the best shape of my life. Because I had been called fat by classmates, though, I thought I was indeed fat.