BIG GIRL PANTIES

I went to a weight-loss hypnotist a while back. Yes, I've tried just about every trick in the book to lose weight.  Hypnosis didn’t work so well. I think I've gained an additional 10 pounds since that time...not the hypnotist's fault, I assure you.

That evening, my friends and I had a glass of wine in the lounge prior to attending the session that packed a room at the Holiday Inn Express.  We had to. What if the hypnosis gave us an aversion to drinking? What if this was our last hurrah?

 One of the things the hypnotist told us to scare us skinny will astound you too. American females have doubled in size in 30 years, the hypnotist claimed. In 1980, women were a size 6 on average and in 2010, women were an average size 14.  I was horrified, I was skeptical and I was relieved that I could be considered average. 

I wanted to fact-check that tidbit of information provided by the hypnotist, but after three or four Google searches with no luck, I gave up.  Here's what I tried:

how much fatter have women gotten since 1980

difference in size of women from 1980-2010

obesity rates in women from 1980-2010

I never found his statistic and I wasn't about to sift through a 583-page report on obesity published by the Center for Disease Controls to verify it.  After all, I’m writing a blog post, not trying to publish an article in Scientific American, right?

Suffice it to say, many of us are bigger than our mothers were. I know I was unable to squeeze into my mother's wedding dress. So, it's time to pull out the big girl panties and wear them with pride, because after all, I’m not fat, I’m average.