I know I will get unpopular...
Luv2Tickle69 said:
recognize your worth AS YOU ARE....even if you DO feel a smidge less than perfect......guess what....EVERYONE has imperfections...it's how we deal with our OWN that enables/disables us from dealing with everyone else's. If YOU feel beautiful.....you ARE....and if you DON'T.....ya better start finding it in yourself to obtain that feeling....'cuz that's what radiates to the world around you. Feel it for yourself, and it IS for yourself....and if someone else sees that in you? A splendid bonus.... 🙂
I agree with the spirit of the first part of your post but, sorry, I really do not agree with the quoted part.
You mentioned two points:
health concerns: this is a solid rational motivation. Guess what? It doesn't work for the most. If it was, nobody would smoke cigarettes, AIDS wouldn't kill anybody at all, alchool addiction would not exist.
money: well, I take as *almost* a joke (even if it is true).
I read some sneakiness behind that *smidge less than perfect* statement. If you really think it is a smidge less you would not worry. If you worry it is because you look at the mirror and you do not recognize yourself as the person you think you are. I said "think you are", not "want to be", which is a completely different story and that could lead to self destructive behaviors (like: I want weight this much, have the hair of this color, the lips so big, the nose this way, etc.).
Being overweight (with rare exceptions, which are usually medical conditions), as well as smoking or other habits, is not something that God sent you and that cannot be dealt with. IF it is something that you REALLY want to deal for YOURSELF, not for other ones (i.e. to feel more accepted, to please somebody or something, to show off how good you are in achieving self imposed goals, etc.), it can be done.
You don't have to do that, as well as you don't have to force in reassuring yourself that you SHOULD feel good for it: it would be like trying to get control over one of your own deepest feelings (the self perception) and try to bend it to your will ("cause I know I can feel good!"). It is wrong. You can run but you can't hide: if you are not truly and naturally satisfied your insatisfaction will come out in other aspects of your personality and it could be bad for you. This is a general thought, it applies to many things.
I have friends who are struggling with overweight (and other ones that are perfectly fine with it and just laugh at it!). I have never dealt with weight gain/loss myself but I did with smoking. It took years of self training and self awareness. But at last I won, after many defeats.
These are steps that might require many many many years. Sometimes, some shocking event to get started. Also because there is nothing bad being over/under weight per se, and people can be very happy with it, as well as there are people that are attracted to it. But it does not mean that if you feel good, you should expect that everybody will like you.
I can feel like George Clooney (really, I try hard!) but I do not get as much success as he does!
Said all that, of course, there are other very important factors (and actually more important factors), than "n" more or less pounds (more or less than WHAT? ... but that's another story...) that matter in personal relationships.