The Science of Diet

Ok, so my mission an hour ago was to find some advice on healthy eating. So I Googled it. Found lots of helpful advice. Then I Googled ‘how to maintain weight’ and got a lot fewer hits. Then I tried ‘how to gain weight’. Hmm. Absolutely no helpful hints except those aimed at people who have already lost weight and now want to maintain the weight they currently have. So basically, skinny people are screwed. It’s almost as if we don’t really exist as far as the rest of the world is concerned, and if we do, we are labelled as those people… you know, the ones who eat but never actually keep anything down, or those that just never eat at all.

As a skinny girl, I’ve had my fair share of run-ins with other women. I’ve had to put up with the assumption that I have some eating disorder (I mean, how is it possible to be my size and actually eat?), or I have those women who gush about how great it must be to be my size. It is here that I want to correct this assumption.

First of all, I’m really short. Petite, some would say, but I think they’re just being polite about the obvious: I’m short and really skinny. I know what you’re thinking – that it must be such a pleasure for me to go clothes shopping… trust me, it’s anything but. Because I’m short, all my pants are too long, so I have the choice of doing one of three things: rolling them up (which makes me look like a 5-year-old), wearing ridiculously high heels (which leave me cripple after an hour or two), or having them shortened (which is a mission, not to mention an expense when you have to do it with every single pair of pants). Skirts which cut average height women at the knee, cut a couple of inches below my knee, which achieves the look of a school girl in a skirt her mom is hoping she will grow into. Tops are about the only thing I can shop for with any kind of satisfaction, and then only if the stores happen to stock a xs size.

I also can’t carry off a lot of the fashion trends. Pashminas almost fall off me. Those long tops that you can basically wear as a very short dress make me look like I’m playing dressup. Long dresses only make me look shorter. High-waisted skirts make my already non-existent hips disappear completely.

My point is simply this: even us skinny gals have something to complain about. So the next time you see a teeny girl, try not to judge her. She may be like me – praying for a sudden growth spurt, and for her hips to magically appear.

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