Is LeAnn Rimes too skinny?



Maybe it's time to stop worrying about the numbers...

This is the question that’s been all over the media lately with comments like (and these are not my own, I’m careful to add)  “LeAnn Rimes is working out too much” “Is LeAnn Rimes eating enough?” yada, yada. And my answer to all this is STOP!! People, please…what LeAnn does or does not eat shouldn’t be the concern of everyone’s daily lives. And just why does everyone feel compelled to speak out on women’s weight with comments like (and these again are not my comments but examples of what’s in the media): “LeAnn’s too skinny”, “Katie Holmes’ has got a pooch: is she pregnant?”, “Kirstie Alley’s put on even more weight!!”, etc. When do you ever hear comments about guys’ weight? RARELY. And if you do hear about it, it’s a blip on the media’s radar: “Brad Pitt’s put on weight: he’s probably done it for his current movie role”, etc.

This is why we women struggle so much with our weight—and why our feelings of self-esteem are so wrapped up in the size of our bodies: we are constantly in the spotlight whether we live in the Hollywood world or not. This is the kind of attention that breeds eating disorders and disordered eating. And it has to stop.

I bring this all up too because of an experience I had yesterday at the doctor. Let me preface it by saying I never weigh myself anymore. I stopped doing so once I reached my goal: getting back into my size 6/8 clothes. And I’ve been very happy. I work out regularly, eat what I want in moderation, and never gave my weight a thought…until yesterday.

Of course, doctor’s offices like to weigh you in first thing…as if this is the crucial thing that’s going to make or break your health. But anyway, the nurse said to me after she balanced the little weight bar on the scale: “I would never have guessed you weighed that much! You look so tiny…” WHAT?! I wasn’t sure how to interpret that but my mind instantly went to: “Wow, you are pretty hefty and I would have never guessed that looking at you.” And I started to feel fat. And I started to feel bad about myself. And then I started to get angry. I told the nurse: “And that is exactly why I never weigh myself. It’s not about the numbers on the scale. It’s about how you feel about your body.” I’m not sure if she realized that I was angry, but I felt better for speaking my mind.

Despite that, though, there’s just a tiny niggling voice in my head today saying: “You’re fat”…and I’m trying very hard to dispel it. But it just goes to show how even one person’s comment can affect your feelings of self-confidence!

So before you jump on the bash-the-stars-or-people-because-you-think-they’re-too-thin-too-fat-or-just-too-whatever bandwagon, think about how you’d like it if someone did that to you. I know that answer firsthand—and mine wasn’t thankfully splashed across the media, which can only make the effect on your self-esteem 10,000x worse!