I am a freak of nature. I am a lifelong vegetarian whose parents never set out to raise her that way. Oh really. Everyone in my family eats meat, but for some reason, I didn’t eat it when I was a kid. Well, to be honest, my dad likes to remind me that I used to like bologna… but I’m not even sure that really qualifies as meat and I stopped eating it as soon as I found out it was made. of an animal I must have been a Buddhist in a previous life.
However, I have never been someone you would consider skinny. Chubby, plump, big-boned… and yes, even fat. Those are the words that would describe me.
I know most people think that vegetarians are naturally slim and healthy. And many are. But I am here to say that this is not always the case. There are many foods that are both vegetarian and unhealthy, and eating these foods in abundance can make you fat, even if you’re not eating meat.
Princess dresses are not low waisted
I realized that I wasn’t skinny in first grade. My mom would always dress me up in these hideous low-waisted dresses that she thought made me look skinny. She even told me to hold her stomach in (and, being six, the only way I know how to do that is to hold my breath).
Well, one day we had to go shopping for a dress for my First Communion. Of course, my mom starts looking at all these low-waisted dresses. But she didn’t want a low-waisted dress. Normal waisted dresses were much prettier and princess-like. She wanted to be a pretty princess and she knew she couldn’t be in an ugly low-waisted dress. I fought and I cried. Eventually, the sales clerk, bless her heart, convinced my mom that she should let me buy the dress she wanted.
The curse of my last name
My maiden name is Tubbs. Yes, you read it right. A fat girl whose last name is Tubbs. She couldn’t make this up if she tried.
Now, in high school, I wasn’t terribly fat. But like almost every other normal teenager, he was self-conscious about my weight. And the last name.
I joined the drama club at the same time as another girl named Shannon, so the drama teacher nicknamed me Tubby… after my last name (so he said. Of course, all I could think was “why am I so fat?” ?” every time I heard him say my “name”.). You’re probably thinking that this story couldn’t get any worse. He does. The other Shannon turned out to be quite tall and skinny, so the teacher started calling her “Stick Woman”. Stick Woman and Tubby. Fantastic.
All my friends, being modern women, used to debate whether we would take our husband’s last names if we ever got married. Or would we write scripts? There was never any question on my mind. I would take whatever last name my future husband came with.
fat acceptance
Throughout college and in the years after, I began to gain a lot more weight. But I did not care. I was at a point where I knew that true beauty came from within and it didn’t matter how I looked on the outside. I thought that God had made me fat and there was nothing I could do about it. I didn’t have a scale and it was fashionable among my friends to wear baggy handmade clothes, so I never realized how big I was growing. Even if I did, I wouldn’t have cared. I was fat and happy.
I had a doctor tell me that I was overweight and needed to lose weight. But he also told me that all the blood tests and other vital signs were perfectly normal, so I didn’t think much of it.
The dreaded diagnosis
Finally, when I was 23 years old, another doctor diagnosed me with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). He was devastated. I knew a few people with PCOS, so I did some reading about it. I knew that people with PCOS had a tendency to be overweight and found it difficult to lose weight.
Now, I was comfortable with my weight, even though it was high, but for some reason, the thought that my weight would keep going up and up really bothered me. I had a good cry and then did some more research.
Small changes and big achievements
I read that many women with PCOS have had success on a low carb diet, so I decided to give it a try. Of course, as a vegetarian, I failed miserably at that, however it encouraged me to start changing some eating habits.
I went from drinking a two-liter bottle of soda a day to only drinking diet soda. I ate more vegetables and salads.
I had always thought my diet was “pretty good.” After all, when people heard that I was a vegetarian, they would all exclaim “Wow! You must be so healthy!”
Well, I wasn’t.
I realized that I had been eating various forms of pizza four times a week. I considered frozen pizza, pizza pockets, and delivery pizza to be different foods. When I wasn’t having pizza for dinner, I was having pasta or macaroni and cheese. On the rare occasions that she did eat a salad (only when she ate out), she was loaded with ranch dressing. In addition to my unhealthy meals, I regularly ate bags of chips, chocolate bars, and ice cream.
Needless to say, just by making a few healthier choices, I started losing weight. And the more small changes you made, like incorporating exercise, the more weight you would lose.
striving to be better
I’m not a perfect person. I’m still chubby. I don’t eat completely healthy foods 100 percent of the time. But I always strive to make healthier choices that will offset the bad choices I make. It’s been seven years since I started this journey and I’m light years from where I used to be. In high school, I couldn’t run around the track even once. Now, I regularly run 5 miles or more!
I share my story because I know that there are many people who are where I used to be. Eating a vegetarian diet can trick you into thinking you’re always making healthy food choices. But that is not always the case. If you are an obese vegetarian and you are not happy with the way your body looks, then take a look at the foods you are actually eating. Perhaps you, too, can begin a journey to a healthier life, simply by making a few small changes at a time.
