I was surfing through a bunch of blogs by writers the other night and read something really eye opening. Unfortunately I didn't book mark it so can't post the link but I'll try to paraphrase.

Basically the writer talked about having to skip breakfast then looking for something to eat in the vending machine later in the morning. She complained to a co-worker because the only choices were candy bars and cookies. The co-worker's told her not to worry, you're skinny you can eat what you want.

The writer's point was that the reason she's skinny is that she DOESN'T eat what she wants. She works hard to maintain the body she has and it doesn't get that way by eating cookies for breakfast. Nobody over the age of 30 has a good body by accident.

Because I spend so long looking at these issues from the point of view of someone who struggles with my weight, I never really stop to think that people who look good get that way because they work at it. It's too easy to dismiss them as 'thin bitches' who, through some freak of genetics, have it easy.

I grew up with cousins who did fit into that genetic freak of nature category - they could get away with never exercising and living on junk food - so I tend to think most thin women are like that.

I've never had a healthy eating role model. Most of my life I've believed you eat how you like and you are either lucky or not, yet I've worked with many women who bring in healthy lunches from home and exercise regularly. I've seen them work at having good bodies.

Even since I've lost weight, I've thought about these lifestyle changes as being something I need to do because I've had to lose weight, but the reverse is true: I put on weight because I never had a healthy lifestyle. I'm not the exception. It's not a curse or some bad choice in the lucky dip of genetics. It's the way people should live.