Not Your Body, Not Your Business

[Coworker #1] has managed to lose eight stone (112 pounds) over a year with no fad diets and no expensive equipment. Honestly, I am so happy for him; he seems so much more confident and outgoing lately.

I’m hoping to lose some weight, so I ask him for some tips. He is going through the various tricks that worked for him. 

Out of nowhere, [Coworker #2] appears.

Coworker #2: “Oh, deary, you don’t need to listen to him.”

Me: “Sorry, what?”

Coworker #2: *Tuts* “Society forces young women like us to try to fit some stupid ideal.”

I’m a little shocked she paired us both as “young women” as I’m twenty years her junior, but I don’t react.

Me: “No, actually, I do want to lose weight.”

Coworker #2: “That’s just social brainwashing. You should be happy.”

Me: “[Coworker #2], I am happier when I am thinner. I feel better, I look better, and my health is better. For me, I am more myself thinner.”

Coworker #2: “Oh, my dear, they have gotten to you good. Haven’t they?! Do yourself a favour: go out tonight and get a big chocolate cake, eat it, and tell me tomorrow if being thin is being happy.”

She clearly isn’t going to listen to me, insisting that I shouldn’t be told what to do by society and instead be told what to do by her. Instead of buying that cake, I go for a run. I’m hot and it’s painful, but I feel amazing when I achieve it for the first time.

The next day:

Coworker #2: “Good morning, sunshine. How did that cake taste?”

Me: “[Coworker #2], listen. I’m happy that you are happy with yourself. But please don’t spread your agenda. We buried my uncle last year after a stroke; I won’t go the same way.”

Coworker #2: “Well, he could have died from any number of things. You can’t live your life in fear.”

Me: “He was forty-five and obese. Please, [Coworker #2]. Just drop it.”

As I stuck to it and slowly lost weight, I saw [Coworker #2] avoid me more and more, not that that’s a bad thing. Eventually, she turned her attention to a new starter — another woman who was slightly overweight. She would buy cakes and make disparaging remarks about the skinny b****es around the office.

I never figured out what hurt [Coworker #2] so much that she needed to hate on others so much, but I hope she learns to love herself not just by putting others down.