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For anyone who ever felt the conflicting emotions over being healthy but overweight, Hedy Phillips is here to tell you that you're not alone. She has graciously shared her story of struggle from chubby child to curvy woman in a wonderfully relatable way.
The details of her story begin in high school, where she was a very active cheerleader.
Between school, practice, running and weight training, Hedy didn't have time for crappy foods or lazy habits.
Yet she was still heavier than her squad mates, and considered herself to be the fat cheerleader. She recounts how easy it is to take comments the wrong way when you're overweight, initially feeling that a well-intended compliment was a subtle barb against her self-esteem.
In college, all her hard work and exercise slowly drifted out of mind and she began to gain even more weight.
Luckily, she held on to that high school work ethic and got herself back on track with regular exercise and a moderate diet.
While she definitely became healthy once more, she was still classified as "overweight" by standard medical charts. When she finally had a metabolism test, she discovered her body at rest would barely burn 1,00 calories per day; compare that to the standard 2,000 listed on food nutrition labels.
Now more informed, Hedy has been able to change the way she thinks about her body.
In a world of photo-shopped starlets and half-starved runway models, she can proudly say that she is healthy. So what about being a little on the heavy side when you can run two half-marathons in a year.
To quote Hedy's final words, "It's time to embrace being curvy."
