Jenny Craig’s My Ideal Size Contest….and one year on maintenance!

I am not very good at contests. I can’t remember ever winning one. But Mr. F and Karen insisted that I enter Jenny Craig’s current “My Ideal Size” contest. The deal is that you’re supposed to say that my ideal size is….size “fill in the blank.” Some of the entries are pretty predictable…size healthier, size cute little dress, size 9, etc. Mr. F and Karen are very creative. Mr. F entered as the “skinny chef,” and Karen entered as “size stronger.” So what to do? After thinking about it a bit, I entered with “size professional.”

What does that mean? Well, of all the nice benefits of losing weight, including the inevitable health and vanity, it’s nice to feel confident in front of audiences. So much of a professor’s work involves public speaking, and as a bit of an introvert, that was always the hard part for me. I’d like to believe that appearance doesn’t matter much in a profession that’s supposed to be based on intellectual ability, but it does. You just get the sense that people take you more seriously when you’re not overweight. In an earlier post, I featured research that showed that weight bias is as frequent as racial bias.

So, I don’t know if I’ll win the contest, but it was a good opportunity to reflect on what my 77 pound loss means to me. Today is actually my one year anniversary of meeting my goal weight. Woo hoo. Maintenance has been surprisingly easy–I haven’t fluctuated outside a 3 pound range. 

So congrats to all the My Ideal Size entrants–they are all taking important steps to feeling better about themselves. And good luck to Karen and Mr. F!