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| LAURA DEMETRIOU |
Let’s get something straight before I carry on. I’m at a healthy weight. I have a normal BMI. I eat my five fruit and veg a day. I eat breakfast (sometimes), lunch and dinner and I drink lots of water. I should really join a gym to keep the heart healthy but, aside from that, I’m all good.
As a naturally slim person I tend to get negative comments from friends and family, especially with regards to me putting on weight. Constantly. From grandmothers poking me and saying how skinny I am to friends joking about me puking after my meals. It’s a real hoot. Could you sense the sarcasm there?
Oh, but it’s not just me who has to endure the rudeness. Here are some comments that a few friends have had thrown at them:
‘Do you starve yourself?’
‘Cor, don’t get any thinner love, we won’t be able to see you!’
‘Ouch! Can you get off my lap? Your bum is really boney!’
‘Do you even eat? I bet you throw it up afterwards, don’t you!’
‘You need a few meals down your neck!’
Charming.
It’s not that I don’t eat much. Far from it. Those who follow me on Twitter will no doubt be aware of my love for sausage rolls, Crème Eggs and mum’s three-course meals, consisting of a huge bowl of pasta followed by chicken and salad and rounded off with homemade banoffee pie. Even as I’m writing this, I’m drinking a hot chocolate with whipped cream and Bailey’s and eating a buttery, jammy crumpet (or two.)
But for some reason it’s never enough.
I can’t imagine someone would go up to an overweight lady in a restaurant and tell her that she shouldn’t order dessert or that she’s eaten too much. Yet it’s somehow completely acceptable for a stranger to say to me ‘you’re so skinny! Are you ill?’
Take a typical conversation with a family member:
FM: Have you finished your meal?
Me: Yes thanks, it was lovely!
FM: Would you like seconds?
Me: No thanks, I’m fine.
FM: Come on, have more, you could do with fattening up!
Me: I’m full.
FM: But you’re skin and bone!
Me: I’m pretty sure I’m made of more than skin and bone. Quite sure actually.
FM: I’ll get you some more.
Me: No, really, I’m not hungry. [Get up to take plate out to kitchen]
FM: [Shout from the other room] YOU’RE NOT PUKING IT ALL BACK UP, ARE YOU?
Me: [Bang head on nearest hard surface. Repeat.]
Why am I slim? My parents, when they were my age, were both naturally thin people and I seem to have inherited the skinny gene. That’s all. There’s no hidden secret to it. No starving, no throwing up, no deals with fairies/genies/other mythical creatures.
Why am I slim? My parents, when they were my age, were both naturally thin people and I seem to have inherited the skinny gene. That’s all. There’s no hidden secret to it. No starving, no throwing up, no deals with fairies/genies/other mythical creatures.
So, leave the rude comments and the poking at home. Remember your manners, and if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
