In case you missed it, and you probably did because I haven’t mentioned it until now– “I” (quotation marks intentional) was featured in the NY Post yesterday.

You can read it here. But only after you read the rest of this post below. I’m demanding, aren’t I? 🙂

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The food editor of the NY Post contacted me last week about being featured in an article about holiday weight gain. She had found my blog post from last year where I talked about gaining 20lbs during the holiday season due to many factors that were out of my control. Those factors included a brief pregnancy that resulted in miscarriage, and two major family emergencies that created environmental changes that were far from my norm.

I agreed to the article based on the understanding that it would be a health/wellness piece meant to help others manage holiday weight gain.

The article itself is okay, minus the dates being wrong and numbers being off– oh and the almost comical statements like, “She indulged her penchant for fast-food restaurant Bojangles’ cheddar biscuits. And there were also regular blowouts on Mexican food and family Italian meals.” I’m not saying that those things didn’t happen, but I’d hardly call them penchants or blowouts, but whatevs.

What really got me, and the reason I didn’t just share the post via Facebook, Twitter, etc., was the title: TAKING CARE OF MY FAMILY MADE ME FAT

I cannot in good conscience share that headline with my picture attached without some sort of explanation.

My first reaction when I saw it was, “I just became mother effin’ click bait!” (that was my selfish, self-centered, narcissistic response) then I thought, “what the sh!t? I got fat taking care of my family?” Um…no, that is hardly true, and completely devalues my relationship with my family and what I would do for them, even if it meant gaining 20lbs– which had nothing to do with them and everything to do with my personal choices– oh and water retention and doubled blood volume from the pregnancy.

So why am I sharing it now?

Well, because I want you to read it. I want you to read it and understand that just because you read something on the internet, even in the the news, especially a story about weight loss– that what you’re reading is meant to create traffic to the website in order to earn advertising dollars. (I’mperfect Life is not exempt from this practice– you can read my disclosure here) This means creating ridiculous headlines meant to intrigue someone enough to click on the article, having a dramatic picture attached to it makes it that much more tempting.

Newspapers, online journals and other “news” oriented publications (print or web) have limited space in which to present the story they want to convey– this means A LOT of details are left out, leaving you to believe something is black and white, without any gray area, or info “between the lines,” as they say.

Weight gain and weight loss are scientifically very simple, calories in vs. calories out; but personally, for all of us, it’s very complicated. It’s okay to be inspired by other people’s stories, to feel encouraged, and to allow them to change your perspective from that of feeling helpless to hopeful, but please, PLEASE do not compare yourself to others.

Don’t take articles that talk about weight gain or weight loss at face value. Know that there is a LOT of gray area that has been left out. Remember that no matter how alone you may feel in your struggles, you are far from alone.

Every one of those success stories you’ve ever read has far more to it that what you’re able to learn from a brief article. Don’t allow them to make you feel less-than, or leave you feeling like it’s not fair, or wondering why if they can do, why can’t you? You’ll never know a person’s truth from one quick article or news segment.

Don’t get caught in click bait, sensationalism, or someone else’s story wanting to make it your own.

Your story is your’s and only yours, make it what you want it to be.

Love yourself for who you are, where you are; get excited about who you are becoming and where you are going.

Focus on living your best, happy, healthy I’mperfect Life.

As an important side note:

I knew going into my agreement to be interviewed that the Post is a tabloid, but I did my due diligence– I asked the editor lots of questions about her angle and read her articles online before committing. At the last minute, someone else did the interview and when it was over, I knew it wasn’t what I was told it was going to be. In the whole scheme of things, the article is really no big deal. It didn’t make me look bad, it was just…kind of pointless and not the type of story that’s usually written about my awesomeness. #noshame 🙂

As my post (the one you just read above) states, my issue is that the article doesn’t do the topic any sort of justice. Weight gain and weight loss are very serious subjects for me, not something I like to exploit or sensationalize.