Don't call me skinny. That's not my name!

Let's get one thing straight, right off the get go.  I am NOT, nor will I ever be, skinny.  I'm built for comfort.  I am a pear.  I take after the ancient carvings of the ultimate mother.  I am round in the round places.

And while I appreciate that people want to congratulate me on my weight loss - yes, I am indeed looking ever so much better - I do not, repeat, NOT want co-workers to greet me with "Hi, skinny".  It may seem perverse to want to look better and feel better, yet not have every single encounter punctuated with remarks about my thinning face, my shrinking fat.  Why?  Because if you are consciously noting my size now, you were before, and god forbid, you might again.  Would you like me to address you as "Hi fatty"?

I am not my dress size anymore than I am my shoe size (which also is the subject of remark from time to time...as in, OH MY GOD! How big ARE your feet?)  What a shock to discover that a 6 foot tall woman has size 12 feet!  I would really like you to treat me as if you do not see that my clothes are a tad baggy, and that my face has lost its pudge (which means I used to look younger, but now I feel younger).  I really really only want my closest friends and family to comment on how much weight I have lost.  I don't even want my boyfriend to pass comment other than to say from time to time:  you look great!

So for all you folks out there who notice that someone you work with or are acquainted with is losing weight, here are a few alternatives to the "OMG, you're disappearing" remark:

1.  Hi [insert name].  That's a super dress / outfit on you.  It looks great.
2.  You look great.
3.  It's inspiring to see your commitment.
4.  NOTHING.  (i.e., act as if nothing is different unless THEY bring it up)

And, finally, just one aside about the "you're disappearing" comment.  No, I am not.  In fact, when I was fat I was invisible (except when you looked wistfully at the 1/2 seat I left next to me on the bus).  Now that I have lost about 140 lbs from my all time heaviest, men and women open doors, give up their seats, randomly engage in witty repartee at the bus stop, and so on.  The fat phobia and fat prejudice in our society runs rampant - it's the last area of bigotry that seems acceptable.  And it stuns me how incredibly marginalized and discounted good, smart, wonderful people are merely because they are overweight.  But that's a topic for another day.

In the meantime, yes, I DO look mahvelous... but no, my name is NOT "skinny".