My Brazilian Family Is Obsessed With Being Thin

I don’t know how it started, but I am here to end it.

Photo by Maria Lupan on Unsplash

I can’t say my family does not love me, but I know that there is generational karma in my family that I am willing to break. A Karma that has caused me a lot of pain in the past.

For my family to be well is to be thin. If you are fat, you need to do something about it. I know it’s not a problem only with my family but with Brazilians in general.

I remember at school, a friend saying that you can have as many problems as possible, but if you are thin, everything is fine. Being fat was the primary issue and the one that you should be most concerned about.

Also, it’s believed that if you are thin but have failed everything else, you are worth more than someone fat, and that has their life on track. If you can’t manage your weight, you are nothing.

I grow-up hating my belly. At 16, I was anorexic with 42kg. At 26, I was the heaviest I had ever been in my entire life, with 90kg. I know I have been battling with my weight my whole life. And I am not where I want to be yet.

There isn’t one time that I talk to my family that the conversation about weight doesn’t come along. It’s awful, and I hate it. Either we are talking about other people who are fat or…