HELP ME PLEASE!

by sarah hughes
(duncan ok U.S)

I NEED HELP i am 15 years old and i weigh 270.

People say i hold it well b/c i am almost 6 foot but i have arm flab and im tired of bein made fun of at school.

im tired of everyone saying no shes too fat.

i need help, being a almost sophmore in high school and being fat isnt fun when this way.

i need help on losing it ive tried everything on so i could losing my weight problem and i end up gaining it all back.

i go home and cry everyday b/c i get laughed at.

i have a bad history that i cant focus with and things at home arent going so well i need all the help i can!

......PLEASE HELP ME!

From Cindy:

Hey Sarah, there is nothing and no one more cruel than a crowd of pimple-faced adolescents trying to impress each other with their wit. Just one of them decides that it's his job to point out that someone is different in some way and all the others will join in. Almost all...some kids seem not to be infected with the 'show off' gene, but many are.

I saw it happen myself in highschool. One kid, who was a friend of mine and lived just down the street, was overweight. Lots of other kids used to let him know about it unkindly. I could tell that he lacked confidence in himself and he would take the comments badly.

He would have been about your age when he made up his mind, without telling anyone, that he would do something to fix it. He wasn't sure he could lose the weight or how to do it, but he had read alot of magazines and knew he could get a lot stronger by weight lifting.

He used his paper-route money to buy a set of weights and used his magazines on muscle building to learn what exercises to do. After a couple of months, I could easily see the change in him, not just his shape, but a change in attitude as well.

That's when he told me about the weight lifting he was doing and why. At first he thought that if he was strong enough he would simply beat up anyone who called him fat.

By exercising and building muscle he had started to burn alot of fat too, and it showed. The comments from the loud-mouths slowed down and he never had to confront any of them (he was really too nice a guy to beat up anyone anyway!). They didn't dare shoot their mouths off now. He joined the boys football team and became one of the star players. He loved the new him and stuck with his weight training well beyond high school.

I guess my point in telling you this is to show that you have control of your own destiny. I know you are a girl and my friend was a boy, but the story is the same. You can take steps to gain self-confidence and to be the kind of person you want to be. You must either ignore the comments of others or use them to motivate you to make some changes.

I'm not suggesting, of course, that you become a football player, but if you are unhappy with the shape you are in, take control and do something about it. There are some great books out there that can give you all the information you need to start out. You need to know that popular 'fad' diets will only lead to down and then back up weight. You should be looking for changes that you can live with for a long time.

Simply taking some steps to make things better might make all the difference in your confidence. Crying after school each day is no way to live.

All the best, and I'm rooting for you...

Cindy

P.S. Please write back if you have any specific questions about any of this. I'm happy to help.