The illusive box....

Throughout life we discuss this box- whether we intend to or not. As a teacher; we constantly talk about this box. And as an overweight person, we talk about this box too..

THE BOX!!!

Ok so what is this box I am referring to, I hear you asking. It is the box that "everyone" fits into. Now this was crossing my mind because I'm currently teaching in a time were we are doing NAPLAN and other types of assessment to assess our kids at school. What does NAPLAN assess? Nothing. In my opinion it is the most ridiculous test in the world. But I have a reason.
There is the box that the government want all students to fit into. They want to assess what the child knows in 40mins, without any context. This test does not allow for students with learning disabilities, attitude problems, speaking English as a second language. Instead sometimes these students are asked to not participate as opposed to doing the test. I have all sorts of issues with using the same testing for different students. All the students in my class are different and have different needs for their learning. I cannot write a quick note to the government body testing them and say "Excuse me, but Laura Britten didn't do well on this test because she is a slow reader, is slightly behind in her schooling and simply didn't complete this test in the allotted time." They don't care, to them, this child does not fit into the box.

So why do we want to conform society into the box? Everyone is different, with different wants and different needs, yet we are still forcing them into this box. Weight-loss is the same. "Fat" people are stigmatized in the news and in the world as being lazy, uncaring, unhealthy, fast food guzzling,  soft drink chugging, awful human beings. And for those who said "That isn't true..." Have a think about it...

I recently had enormous bowel issues- and was in serious amounts of pain. Now I'm not going to lie and say that I was eating a clean diet at this stage in my life. But I was only having take away once a week, my diet was low on processed foods and I was never a fan of soft drink.

Because of my size, it was suggested by my doctor and a surgeon that my issue was that I was eating highly processed foods, that I needed to cut back on sugary drinks and that I needed to increase the amount of vegetables I was consuming. 

No one believed me when I said I have at least 4 vegetables at dinner time, and that the worst thing I was drinking was milk... They put me into the fat box and I fit its criteria...

Isn't that sad??

The fact is that we are constantly doing this to ourselves, and sometimes we don't realise it.

I tried to fit into the finale bubble last week, and it didn't work out. Oh well!

I don't need a night to celebrate my weight loss, my achievements and other peoples achievements, I can do that elsewhere. 

I recently had a situation where someone who came to stay bought their own food and said that I was still very welcome to cook my own food because she knew I was on a diet..

We need to get away from this stigma that because someone is on a "diet" or someone is losing weight, that their diet ISN'T full of special food, its not something that only the person losing weight can eat, it is just healthy food. I must admit, that those comments really annoyed me. The food that I eat isn't neccessarily different from what others eat. And I hate the statement "Should you be eating that?" << Is it any of your business?? Is it your choice that I am eating something? Don't you think that I can eat one thing without putting back on the 4kgs I've just lost?? 

We need to stop putting ourselves into a box.. I'm not going to be putting myself into the BMI box. I don't believe that BMI is going to tell me anything I don't already know... So I'm not going to be putting myself in it. DONE. And once I lose this weight- that's good on me. But I don't go into a skinny box just because I look different. The only box I'm being put in is the "Laura Jane Britten" box. It is me, it was born on the 28th of October many moons ago- and that is where I belong..