Sorry, dear readers … I’ve been blogging so infrequently because life has been good and busy, and this week L has been traveling for business and now my sister is visiting–yay! 🙂

Carrie Goldman, author of BULLIED: What Every Parent, Teacher, and Kid Needs to Know About Ending the Cycle of Fear, wrote this beautiful, poignant piece for Huffington Post I wanted to share: “Oh My God, Mommy, You Weigh A Lot.”

A friend had shared the link with me via Facebook, and I loved it. I could certainly relate on so many levels. I never want my daughter to think that her worth is determined by a number, and I love the idea of recognizing a ‘healthy range’ for one’s weight and teaching that flexible outlook to our children.

Her ending just about sums up everything I feel about this topic:

Bodies change. It is proof of life, of flux, of the waxing and waning of our cells. It is okay for the body to soften, for the skin to slacken. It is the beauty in us that allows us to change.

I used to think that there was one perfect body size where I should stay. But the years and the pregnancies and the losses and the adoption of my lovely oldest daughter have all combined to teach me the value of the healthy range. The value of flexibility. Of learning to feel comfortable in my own skin as it tightens and loosens, a winding, endless path to self-acceptance.

When I have moments of doubt, I remember the three little faces turned toward me as if I am their sun and I ask myself, “How will my words and my facial expressions affect them?”

And I find that I reflect their light and their joy in the full range of possibilities, and that there is more than one OK number on the scale.

How about you? Do you view your weight as a “range of possibilities” (i.e., healthy) or do you freak if the scale goes up five pounds? How do you manage accepting a little weight gain without throwing in the towel?