The Oprah Generation

Yesterday  I went shopping. The regular every day/week/month kind of grocery shopping. I hadn't really eaten before hand and everyone who's gone grocery shopping on an empty stomach knows how that goes. I got through the vegetable isle quiet alright but then I found myself surrounded by cookies and candy. I'm not sure if this commercial carries across the globe but trust me, I have one inside me as well. It's green and it has yellow afro hair. Don't believe me? Tempt it with anything which consists primarily of sugars and it'll come out.

So there I was with the little monster tugging at my stomach-strings. And then the unthinkable happened. A famous black woman appeared on my shoulder and bazooka-ed my little monster to smithereens. No kidding!

Oprah and me have always had an understanding. She would make shows about heath and I would ignore them. It has always worked so well for us. But something changed and I think it's my own fault. Well, not totally true. I think it's the media's fault that every time I even look at a cookie I feel my thighs expanding. 

Really, I get all the 'rules'. If you wanna be healthy, you have to eat healthy and the crap that's added to our food is not the crap that was added to our food when we still slept in caves. Still, I don't think that should mean that every time I eat anything after eight o'clock in the evening I should hear Oprah's voice or that, when I want a bottle of water, I check to see which contains the least amount of salt. Because Oprah told me that we ingest way too much salt as it is. 

I can think up about a million small crimes against my self-image I have committed over the last month alone. My primary one being exercise and how I do way too little of it. It's true that every time I go to bed, the though flashes through my head. Still, I think the biggest crime against my self-worth, self-image and self-love is the fact that I am made to feel bad about myself when I 'sin'. Even the fact that eating a cookie after eight constitutes as a sin in my head is making me depressed.

You have to take care of yourself. It's a simple fact. As is the fact that being overweight is really bad for you. Still, what's wrong with being a regular size and weight? Why do I, when I open a magazine, have to be confronted with this:

I know it's a bit of an exaggerated picture but the fact is, I'm not model thin. I personally have always believed I don't have to be in order to be beautiful. No one should be model-thin in order to be seen as beautiful. I can think of about a dozen women right now that are 'slightly' heavier than the woman above and whom I think are way more attractive. Carmen Ferarra, Nikki Blonsky, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, America Ferrera... I can go on but I had a point in here somewhere.

Oh yes, here it is. Oprah, you can suck it. If I wanna eat a cookie, I should be allowed to and if I wanna eat my way through an entire can of salt, I should. I should take good care of me and if I can't enjoy what I eat, I'm not taking good care of me. 

So women (and men), listen up. Listen to yourself and your body. I think our bodies know quiet well what they want to eat and what they don't. And if our bodies want a cookie, they should get a cookie. 

They deserve it.