As I embark on my tenth week of pregnancy, few things have really surprised me along the journey so far.

I knew I would feel nauseous and tired and irritable.

I knew I would have to endure the uninvited advice of women who choose to share only their horror stories of pregnancy, birth and parenting.

I knew I would have to tolerate the annoying “It’s going to be hard” gazes of weary parents, to which I long to say, “If you think you’re the first person who’s told me parenting is to going to be hard, get in line.”

Most of all, I knew I would love this child before I ever saw his or her face. I knew I would cry when I saw the little heart beat on the monitor. I knew I would read and sing to him or her before ears were even formed.

But what I didn’t expect, what I could have never anticipated, what surprised me most were the men.

“Watch out, there. The weight’s easier to put on than it is to take off,” one acquaintance chuckled as I passed by him at the grocery store.

“And remember, you’re not really eating for two…that’s a myth,” another said as I hovered over turkey and mashed potatoes one evening.

There have been other comments – infuriating, moronic, dimwitted comments – by male strangers in regard to how big (or not big) I should get as well as how often and what I should be eating.

Now thankfully, having fully recovered from anorexia and after dealing with many of my body image issues, these asinine comments don’t leave me one bit insecure about my beautiful pregnant body, my healthy eating habits or my current weight (especially since I haven’t weighed myself in almost two years).

What their comments do is leave me enraged at the expectations men – in general – have for women. Their flippant statements about my body, my weight, my eating habits are quite telling and clearly reflect a bigger issue: the unreasonable standard set for women – pregnant or not.

Unfortunately, Western culture idolizes the stick-figure, paper-thin, two-dimensional women on magazine covers and movie screens. Somehow we have come to worship the airbrushed, perfected, concave stomachs and non-touching upper thighs of 88-pound models and celebrities. But, get this: 100% God’s honest objective truth be told, women were not created to look like porn stars and emaciated supermodels.

Believe it or not, this unrealistic and unrelenting expectation has crept even into pregnancy, where it is actually good and right and beautiful to have extra curves and changing shape and, yes, even an increased appetite (heaven forbid).

I don’t have the answer to this issue. I don’t know how to change the course our appearance-crazed, waiflike-obsessed society is on. I just know one thing: I love my pregnant, growing body. It is absolutely gorgeous. And you know what else I love? I love the new foods I’m trying, foods I haven’t eaten in years simply because I got in a rut of eating familiar favorites. Foods like avocados, Idaho potatoes, sunflower seeds, green olives, chopped walnuts, black beans and brown rice. Yeah, with healthy, vitamin-rich foods like that in the cupboard I’m gonna blow up as big as a house, aren’t I, fellas?

Here’s a deal for you, guys…next time you’re pregnant, let’s talk about your eating habits. About how much weight you shouldn’t gain. About how full your shopping cart is. About your cravings. About how you’re not eating for two. Yeah, we’ll do that.

Next time you’re bloody pregnant.

Tags: anorexia, body image issues, food, men, pregnancy  |  Posted under life stuff  |    4 Comments