I went to see my Primary Care Provider today (pink eye—lucky me!), and I was pleased that the nurse remembered not to weigh me. This time, she didn’t even bring it up!
When my PCP saw me, she asked if the nurse remembered to skip the scale, and I said yes. What I didn’t say was that while we were chatting and the nurse was doing my vitals, she was talking about herself—how she’d like to get a bike and try to be healthier.
What I realized after my appointment was that I assumed the nurse meant that she wanted to lose weight. I can’t even remember if she mentioned weight at all, but that was my automatic assumption. I’ve equated “be healthy” with “be thin” for so long, and even now that I know that’s not true, it’s hard to break the habit.
I really want to stop those thoughts, though! I know that health and thinness are two entirely separate things, but I need to really understand it, and to understand that it’s true for everyone—even me.