Fat Chick Fed Up

Happy weekend y’all! It’s especially happy for me because this is the last weekend The Chick Magnet will have to be working for a while. Though it comes with a price-he will be switching to third shifts-it also comes with the nice bonus of having weekends off from now on. I can’t remember the last time he had a job with weekends off. Hooray!

 

As you probably know, if you have been a reader here for more than a couple of weeks, I started my new Saturday series, “Isn’t She Beautiful“, as a response to a “controversial” picture I posted on my Facebook page a few weeks ago, in which I dared to say that someone who was overweight AND pregnant was also BEAUTIFUL. I stand fully behind that statement, and because of the conversations that took place after I posted that picture, I decided that I had one more reason I should be blogging: so I can see and share about unexpected beauty-beauty that may not be defined by the world’s standards (i.e. a number on a scale or the amount of money in your wallet), but is beauty nonetheless.

 

Honestly, I am weary of feeling ugly myself-and while I am working diligently, on the outside and the INSIDE, in order to change the way I perceive myself, I STRONGLY believe, every woman, every PERSON deserves to KNOW and BELIEVE, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they are beautiful. That is the whole point of this series-to celebrate beauty that may typically go unnoticed, uncelebrated.

 

I am so, so excited about this series and about the amazing people that I have lined up to write about. I want to keep this series going as long as possible, so I am also asking my readers to send in stories of people you consider beautiful. You can contact me via the comment form here, via a private message on my Facebook page, or via e-mail at fatchickfedup (at) gmail (dot) com. I would love to hear your stories! And if you want to read the series from start to finish, just visit the “Isn’t She Beautiful” page, linked here, and found in my right side bar.

 

Today, you should consider yourselves very, very lucky because I am introducing you to someone who is so, so special to me. I want you to meet my BEAUTIFUL baby sister, Danielle.

 

 

I shared last week about our other sister, Anjie, and if you recall I told you that she and I are as different as night and day. Danielle and I are freakishly similar. So much so that we were often asked if we were twins when we were younger, even though we have different fathers. Danielle is about 3 years younger than I, but she was always tall for her age, so we were usually about the same height (until she passed me by-stinker!). We both have dark hair and dark skin. But the similarities don’t stop there.

 

We also have similar personalities. We are both Type-A to the extreme. That expresses itself in different ways in our lives, but we are both very, very nit-picky. We laugh about the same things, we finish each other’s sentences at times, and we both have very similar outlooks on life and on our upbringing. What’s odd about that is that we didn’t even live together growing up.

 

Danielle lived with our mother and basically grew up as an only child. Anjie and I lived with our father. It certainly made for an interesting family dynamic, to be sure. I definitely suffered from the “middle child” syndrome as I was jealous of both my older and my younger sisters. It was hard for us to not see each other very often and it was hard for me that Danielle had our mom all to herself. But I think it went the other way as well-her basically being an only child, when we were there to visit it was a totally different environment for her and she had to get used to sharing our mother’s affections, and then we were gone again.

 

We only saw each other once every month or two, if we were lucky. As is often the case, absence made the heart grow fonder and we got along great. For about the first five minutes of any visit. In all reality, we actually got along much better than Anjie and I did. I think part of that was because we were close in age and part of it was that we weren’t together all the time.

 

But when we did fight, we sure had some doozies. I am going to go ahead and rat myself out here now, because if I don’t she will probably say it on my Facebook page or in the comments-I didn’t come by my nickname “Linda Blair” by accident (seriously, if you are too young to know who that is just google it-and her most famous screen role). When we did fight it could get vicious. And there may have been a time where I clawed her face. And drew blood. Maybe.

 

But, I digress. That’s ancient history. I mean, it was five years ago, but give me a break.

 

Kidding. Totally kidding.

 

But we did have some doozies, for sure. Of course, mysteriously, no one can ever remember anything bad Danielle did. She was just a victim.

 

We also had lots and lots of fun. Some of my best childhood memories involve Danielle and some of the games we used to play. Like “camp”-which I think was just our mother’s trick to try and get us to go to sleep. We would pull the covers up over our head and pretend we were camping out under the stars. And then we fell asleep.

 

Or playing with our mother’s Mary Kay our of our dryer. We had a whole professional salon going. I have no idea why we thought the dryer was a good choice, but hey, it was fun.

 

And my personal favorite. Doctor. NO, no, not THAT kind of doctor. The kind of doctor in which we were constantly sick so we had to go to the doctor for our medicine. Which was Hershey’s Syrup, of course. Yeah, the food issues started very young.

 

Alas, we grew up. And just like our other sister, Danielle has become one of my best friends. One of my favorite qualities about Danielle is that she has to be one of THE most generous people I know. Danielle LOVES to give gifts. She loves to get them too (another thing we have in common-we might fancy ourselves princesses). But I don’t think I know anyone who is a better gift-giver than Danielle. She is so thoughtful and can always come up with the perfect way to celebrate someone.

 

She has thoroughly spoiled all of my children. I think she might be wondering when I am going to stop having kids to make it easier on her pocketbook. In all seriousness, though, Danielle is just a giver. Not just of gifts, but of herself. She has one of the biggest hearts that I know and is one of the most unselfish people I know. Unless you steal her butter-then you better watch out! (She knows she loves me!)

 

 

Danielle has been on her own weight-loss journey. The above picture was taken at her wedding (obviously) just over 3 years ago (and yes, those are my cuties with her-my oldest boy was the ring bearer). Since then she has lost about 100 pounds. She is seriously my weight-loss hero and I love her outlook on all of it.

 

She has this to say about her weight-loss success, “I think I just realized I was done with the weight thing, sort of.  It is never easy and every 5 pounds comes back twice as quick as it goes away.  I try not to be scale-obsessed, but if I’m not, it is way too easy to excuse a little weight gain here or there.  I am nowhere near what the “real” ideal weight chart says I should be, but I can’t imagine being too much lighter.  I feel like if I am limited to a couple of carrot and celery sticks a day just so I won’t gain an ounce back, that isn’t really a very exciting life.  I am able to have a “treat” and not feel too guilty!!”

 

I love that, don’t you? This is the ideal attitude towards food I am working towards myself. Not seeing food as the enemy and not seeing myself as its prisoner. Instead, I aim to develop a healthy relationship with food and let go of the guilt associated with certain foods. My sister is living proof that it can be done!

 

Here she is now

 

 

Isn’t she beautiful.