The Rules of the Game Have Changed........

When I was a teenager, my father used to tell me that if I wanted to look thinner then I would have to hang out with fat girls. As with most teens, I didn't listen to my parents. Even though I was never really 'fat', I was always the heaviest of my girlfriends. I mean....I had moments of thinness. Snipets of time when I was either thinner or as thin as my friends. But, mostly, my friends were always thinner. They must have listened to my father---they hung out with me. In high school---my thin best friends were Ginny, Linda and Mari. Mari was a tall, thin dancer with legs that went on forever. Ginny was a willowly, blonde cheerleader with the perfect bikini body. And, Linda had the strong and lean body of the athlete that she was. I didn't get much smarter when I went off to college either. The only friend who was heavier than me went off to a fat farm in between our freshman and sophomore years and came back a size 2. Did these thinner friends target me because I made them look thinner? I'd like to think not. I'd like to believe it was my magnetic personality, my penchant for parties and my overall zaniness. Definitely not my weight!!! But, if it was my weight......well.....I have news for them. And, I feel oh so badly about this. But.....well.....it appears that all of those years of hanging out with me and being my friend may have caused them to become overweight adults. ("Lord if you can't make me thin, please make my friends fat"....each time I said that prayer....I really didn't mean it! I swear!) According to a new study that I just heard about last week---it appears that being freinds with overweight girls when you are younger may have an overall effect on the amount of weight you will gain as an adult. And, just as interestingly, the report says that overweight girls who had thinner friends have a higher liklihood of being of average weight as adults. Bingo. So, there you go. My dad was wrong. Having thinner friends was a good thing. Look at me now! I'm heading into my 50th year with the promise of being an average weight adult. Finally! Walking around Dormont Pool with those 3 bikini clad friends has paid off.........