The Fat Boy Chronicles

So, it never fails...I get sick every year around Halloween. I feel like my head is the size of a watermelon. To top that off, I havent slept well this past week, so I am incredibly exhausted! Regardless of how I feel though, I still have to work. I still have to go to school. I still have to do papers and projects :) andddd I still have to put on a happy face for the Halloween party I am attending tomorrow night!!! :)

So, in my last blog I said I would write about representation from my text book....well my text book is at home, so I am going to side track a little bit because I am writing this while I am at work.

For this project, I have to have three text references. One will be from my text about representation (i swear it will be my next entry!!!) and the second one will be from a book that I just read for my health and physical science education class.

The book is called The Fat Boy Chronicles. This book was fabulous. It was about a boy however. But, for the purposes of gender studies, what happends in the book can surely happen to women also.

The Fat Boy Chronicles is about a boy named Jimmy who is way over weight for his age. He is a freshman in high school and is 5'5". As you can guess, everyone makes fun of him because of his weight. It is very sad that kids made fun of him so bad!!! So, bullying and body image is the message for this blog. And...this is a true story by the way!

I wont go into details about the book because it is a classic case of a boy in high school that is bullied. However, this book has a happy ending. Jimmy is a Christian boy who loved going to church and who had a very supportive family. With the help of both of his parents, he decided to lose the weight. 60 POUNDS to be exact. He did it in 7 MONTHS!!!! He felt so much better about himself, and even got a girl friend!!! Kids at school still bullied him a little, but the joke was more on them in the end :)

Overall, this book really inspired me to conquer my goals. I have lost almost 30 pounds and still have 20 more to go. I am ready to lose that weight!!!

I liked this book because it can really relate to the problems that women have. It doesnt just teach you about how to diet and get healthy. It teaches a lesson that anyone can use for all of their problems. Jimmy had his faith and family support, but most importantly he had the desire to lose the weight so he literally wouldnt die. By Jimmy conquering his weight, he can use those same methods for all the aspects in his life. 

Women (i know because I am female!) can have many problems, and they can easily let those problems build up on top of one another. However, using coping strategies and having self confidence can truly help you conquer anything!!!!

I guess the moral to this book is to never give up. Jimmy could have killed himself and he did think about it. BUT he didnt. Jimmy knew he was better than that and when he put his mind to something, he achieved his goal.

In today's society, women are under a lot of pressure and I think it is important to hear success stories like Jimmy's to keep us going sometimes. It is so easy to get lost in the world, and the pressure of all of our surroundings is too much sometimes. There are soooo many people getting bullied and pressured for the correct body-image these days, and we really need to sit back and figure out how to stop this epidemic.

Maybe self-confidence is the answer....that's what Jimmy had...???

I encourage everyone to read this book. It is really great and I am very proud of Jimmy for not letting the pressures around him get the best of him. And I hope that everyone reading this does what Jimmy did. Never let people put you down. You be the better person!!! I promise it feels good to have self-confidence...it is probably the best feeling in the world!