Call to All Females- Please Listen.

(((<3))). One thing that should also be pointed out (especially regarding this title) is that eating disorders also effect men and for those men who don't suffer from eating disorders directly, its still important that they understand the severity of these illnesses and feel supported as they support loved ones.

I second this comment. I've actually not known any of my female friends to have eating disorders, but I've had two (ex) boyfriends and one good friend who are all male who all had eating disorders. I never have, and it has been difficult being that I don't relate or understand - but I DO understand that it is very prevalent in the male community as well.

Love this post! I grew up in a household where my female role models were either my grandmothers who were products of The Great Depression and relied heavily on food as a form of love... "if you love grandma, please eat these last two biscuits" -- a young child thinks, "of course i love grandma!" and overeats. Not to set blame, however, because that is the way they were raised and did not know how tough it was for people who were living in an era where food was not scarce.

My other female role models were aunts that had plastic surgery or had organs removed to try to lose weight. Try explaining to your friends that you can't all go visit the cousins because one aunt voluntarily had her under active thyroid killed and is overdosing on thyroid meds to stay thin and another aunt is recovering from having her spleen and gallbladder removed.

Then, there was my mother. For my MFP friend's list, you know how odd and crazy a person she is! She had her first weight loss surgery when she was just 20 years old. Has a scar as wide as my pinkie finger from her sternum to belly button where they stapled her stomach. She had a revision on that when she was 25 because she was gaining weight again. I was born when she was 27, so that totally blew all that out of the water it seems. Damn me for gestating! She had her ears stapled in multiple places as a new age form of constant acupuncture to lose weight. She went on crash diets where we all ate cabbage soup and dared not mention the word bread in the household. She drank no water and only pots of coffee and gallons of diet soda. Finally, for about 2 years when I was a pre-teen, she hit her 'goal weight' and though I don't know what she weighed, she wore a Medium top and size 6 jeans. I thought this would be a turning point where I was no longer ridiculed for being overweight and I could learn to get that skinny. Instead, she went shopping with my friends because they were all about the same size. They shared clothes. They went swimming together. I was essentially replaced because then, more than ever, I didn't fit in. Even when I tried to mend fences for being upset over this, she said it was "your own fault for spending all your time eating and never learning to swim."

This is the role model that many of us have had and want to cease perpetuating. My children, though they are boys, still talk about being fat versus skinny and that's something I've worked hard to remove from their vocabulary. We strive to be healthy. We work hard to be active and to live life. They have seen my struggles with weight and they know how difficult it can be. Hopefully, I'm setting the best example I can for them.

Thank you so much for posting this.

My daughter is 8 and very aware of everything I say or do. I'm trying to phrase all of my weight loss efforts as an attempt to be healthier and not as an attempt to be be skinnier (not that my body has ever seen skinny!) We talk about making good food choices, being active and how it's better to be fit than skinny.

This is me. My family inflicted years of emotional abuse about me being over weight/husky, because I wasn't built like my stick-mini Asian cousins. It's taken me many years to get to this current point of my life where I am accepting who I am: fit and active.

I also have an 8yr DD, and I try very hard to be a positive influence on her, teaching her about the health benefits of eating nutritious food (instead of junk) and working-out.

So I am loving it that she is almost OVER-confident as she agrees with me when I tell her how strong and beautiful she is. "Yes, I know". To which, I smile.