Humble Beginnings

Here I am, at the beginning of my journey to become an expert on fitness and health and happy living...and man am I overwhelmed!

I wanted to write an article on the belly (my current obsession). I went to belliesarebeautiful.com and looked at a lot of bellies. I considered posting my own.

I read that the larger we get as a general population, the thinner our models get.

And during eras when women gained rights (voting, reproductive control, economic control), the popular women's dress deemphasized women's ability to reproduce--chao child-bearing hips! chao breasts! Weird, huh.

My article on the belly is a mess! And I'm getting hungry.

Before I stumble out of my writing cave (aka my bedroom) and reach for the tomotoes and goat cheese (my two new favorite foods!), I've got a couple of things I wanted to work out with you, my imaginary and (hopefully eventually) real readers.

My head is spinning. More than ever, I understand that I want to do this job really well, not for me, but for all of you, for every woman who has ever felt too fat. I have lived with enough women to know that we all feel too fat, except for the few who feel too thin. No one I have ever met has been happy and satisfied with their bodies. There's something wrong with our society when every woman is unhappy in it.

I'd like to be part of a solution to fix what's wrong.

This blog is for every woman who has ever thrown a critical glance at her reflection in the window. For every woman suffering from an eating disorder. For the women facing criticism from others every day for not being thin enough.

As I begin to present ideas to you in this blog, I'm going to promise a few things. If I break these promises, please remind me:

• I will not lose myself to the hype of losing weight--no "how to be a size __" on this blog--just real info about good food and fun exercises (yes, there is such a thing)
• I will take complicated information from a variety of sources and make it easy to understand
• I will listen to you
• I will make this blog interesting and fun and humorous (except for today's serious mission statement)
  
• I will be honest about my own struggles with my weight and body image
• I will never, ever bash thin people because they're in the same boat--we're all told by someone or something that we're just not good enough

Maybe together, we can quit the ideal, hug our bellies and bust out the good food and good living!

From the first of many FunFitFoodies