A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss

I’ve never been good at these kinds of intros, so you’ll have to pardon me for jumping all over the place.

I’m a young woman who has fought problems with weight loss for years. After picking up weight at a rate of 20 lbs a year, I finally decided to slow down, take some time to assess what I was doing to myself and why it was happening so fast. What was I doing so wrong?

After taking a lot of time to myself, I worked out, took my emotional eating into consideration, and sure enough my weight started to fall off. I learned things about myself and my interaction with food that I never heard any other woman address… and I can’t help but wonder.. why? Maybe that’s part of the reason why obesity is so prevalent in our society? Men are comfortable with dating a heavier woman because they saw how powerful their mothers were despite the extra weight they carried. Women are comfortable carrying extra weight because there’s so much more to be concerned about and, well, since their peers are carrying extra weight as well, no one’s going to call them out on it. Right? Or, what’s more… how about no one addresses the problem because no one knows exactly how to go about solving it?

I don’t think I have all the answers. I DO know that the answers I DO have are the ones that have helped me lose – and continue to lose all the weight that I’ve shed over the course of one year. The knowledge that I’ve developed over this year will change my life, and it’s unfair for me to horde it all for myself when I know my sisters – regardless of whether or not you’re a sista, per se  – could benefit from hearing it.

Over the years, the blog has been featured everywhere from Zora & Alice to Clutch Magazine to Woman’s Day to Yahoo! Health to NPR. There are well over 17,000 members of the blog’s facebook page, over 4,000 twitter followers and several thousand e-mail subscribers. The BGG2WL network is strong, supportive and successfully enlightening people all across the world about how to live healthily and happily.

PS: If you’re looking for a more in-depth understanding of my growth in fitness, read “A Very Big Piece of My Weight Loss Story” and “A Year Ago Today.”

Excerpted from About Me | A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss