Lose weight or live longer?

A few years ago, women were polled and asked the question:

Would you rather lose weight or live to be 100? And 51% said they would rather lose weight.

I'm saddened by that.

I also hate the saying, "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels."

I've been both very morbidly obese and quite thin (growing up I was all arms and legs and long hair and skinny as a rail) and now, a healthy weight and body fat.

Thin isn't everything. Skeletal isn't attractive. I would suggest that you ladies (and some of you gentlemen) stop dieting and start learning to eat healthy. Yes, there is a difference.

I know this person, who a few years ago looked quite good. Slender but not too skinny. She shared with me that she had been taking diet pills for the past year (and I know she wasn't exercising). Her diet pretty much consists of alcohol and cigarettes. Two years later she looks horrible: emaciated, ashen skin, no life in the eyes...but you know, she thinks she looks great because she is so very thin.

I'm sad for her. She had an attractive body before and now she has no breasts and no ass. I can only imagine the internal struggle she has been dealing with for years that would cause her to go from healthy looking to a walking skeleton. She has succumbed to the American idea that being super thin makes you more attractive.

She isn't the only person I know who would give anything to be thin, severely thin. I just don't get it. Ok, I sorta get it. Every actress or model you see is so thin they have to jump around in the shower to get wet. And as women we compare ourselves.

So women feel pressured to be thin at any cost. Why do you think the diet pill industry is a multi-billion dollar per year industry? Why do you think that every January gyms see a 200% (or more) increase in new memberships?

Bulimia and anorexia aren't going to stop being a problem anytime soon.

Men, too, feel the pressure to look like Brad Pitt (not my idea of an ideal man BTW). Though the numbers are drastically lower for men, there are still plenty who abuse diet pills and are anorexic or bulemic.

I beg you to stop trying so desperately to be thin and instead strive to be healthy. Do not base your self worth on what number the scale registers or what size your clothes are. You will have a much longer and and more fulfilling life if you will.

And frankly how many grandmas and grandpas have you ever heard reminsce, in the twilight of their lives, they the thing they are most proud of is that they were skinny?