Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Lessons I Learned from the School of Hard Knocks

When I was almost 5-years old, I was molested by a 12-year-old neighbor boy. I had never been a "skinny" child but shortly after that I began to gain weight. This is also when my father began making hurtful and critical comments about my size. Already so insecure and feeling so much shame about my body, his comments only drove me to seek more comfort in food. Food acted like a drug for me - it numbed any emotional pain or discomfort I felt and enhanced any happiness I had. I was an obese child who turned into an obese teenager. 

As a teenager when I would sit and eat at the table my father would sit and glare at me with a look of such disgust. At times I would glare back, but mostly I would try to ignore it until I broke down into tears. I learned to take my food down to my room. My portion sizes were off the charts, but you see, I was trying so desperately to fill the hole in my heart where the love and approval of my dad should have been. 

At 16-18 I probably weighed close to (if not more than) 400 lbs. Several times my dad would hold either my 2-year-old or 4-year-old sister in his lap and laughingly whisper something for them to say to me. Reluctantly they would turn to me and say, "Miranda, you're fat. You're ugly." If my dad caught my other siblings overeating he would say, "You better watch how you eat. Do you want to end up like Miranda?" You can imagine my devastation.

As I have slowly put less stock into the treatment of my dad, some of the weight has come off. But, at 25, I still weigh 300 lbs. It is only very recently (like within the last 3 days), thanks to my relationship with my Savior and inspiration from cjanekendrick and Janna Dean's blog posts that I have come to realize that my size really DOESN'T matter.

Christ has never loved me any less because I am fat. Being fat has never made me any less of a good, or kind person. In fact, my struggle with weight has probably made me even more compassionate than I would have been without it. I have come to realize that the body that I have thought about and treated with such contempt is one of the greatest gifts Heavenly Father has given me. I need to start taking care of it. Feeding it more nutritious food and exercising it regularly will be a part of that, but obsessing over a number on a scale will not.

These realizations have hit me with more of an impact than they ever have before. I know who I am and what I am worth and none of that can come even close to being expressed by such a trivial word as "fat". My father did the best he could for me with the limitations he was given by the generations before him. Because of that I have been given an extraordinary opportunity to learn and grow. Someday I will learn to forgive my dad. Maybe I will even have to thank him, because in the loss of my relationship with him I have gained an ever deepening relationship with Jesus Christ. And that is worth more than all the love my dad ever could have given me.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Removing Fear With Faith

Hello, world! My name is Miranda. I'm 25-years-old. I have black hair and brown eyes. I love to read, sing, and watch movies. And at a weight of 320 lbs., I am morbidly obese. You have no idea how difficult and embarrassing it is to write, let alone publicly admit to, that number.

This blog will be about my battle journey with my image of myself and the way I know in my heart God sees me. It seems my whole life to this point has been a struggle to reconcile my self-loathing with my faith and the things I know are true.


What I know to be true is this: I am a Daughter of God. He is the literal Father of my spirit. He sent me to earth  to receive a body and to learn and grow through my experiences in mortality. He knew that I would make many mistakes during my sojourn here so He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to atone for me. Not only for my sins, but for my sorrows and ailments, too. Because my Savior did this for me I can repent and I can also be healed.


And I am in desperate need of healing.


The trouble is that I keep holding myself back. I know that I can turn to the Savior for help, and I do for so many other matters, but I haven't ever really sought His help with this one. It isn't because I don't believe He has the ability to heal my emotional wounds. As crazy as it sounds, I think it's because He can heal me that I haven't been earnestly seeking His help. 


See, I have this story that I constantly tell myself. That I'm fat and ugly. That I'll never succeed. That no matter what I do I'll never be good enough. It was what I heard as a child from a person a child should never have to hear those things from. It didn't matter whether it was said with words or looks or treatment, I heard the message loud and clear. I've lived with this perception of myself for almost 21 years and to be honest, it's become a security blanket. It acts as a safety net when I try to change and fail and gives me permission to never even try at all. Because deep down inside I'm terrified of changing. As painful as it is to live with, this story about myself is comfortable and familiar. A Miranda who isn't obese is a foreign concept. There are no guarantees that she will be any happier than the Miranda who exists today. That Miranda, however, is miserable. She's also had enough.


 Today I listened to the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (of which I am a member) and it has inspired me make a change - this time relying on the help of Christ. I've tried losing weight and improving my self-esteem before, but I haven't allowed Christ to direct my efforts. And I truly believe that I will only be able to succeed if allow Him to do that. One of the main catalysts for creating this blog is something that was said by Elder M. Russell Ballard in Conference today: "Remove all your fear with Faith."


I'm taking those words to heart. I've been unhappy and fearful for so long and I know that this is not in harmony with the plan Heavenly Father has for me. For the first time I'm going to put my full heart into the faith I put in Him. I know changing won't be easy. In fact, I'm prepared for it to be down right excruciating. But I know it will be worth it. 


The Spirit whispers that there's a better life out there for me. I can't wait to meet it.