     Middle school was rough for me because I was an overweight kid growing up in the 90s. I now teach middle school and have a firsthand look at how cruel today’s kids can be. 

     My mom was skinny and didn’t understand the struggle, and never really taught me anything about being healthy. Instead, she would let my skinny little brother eat anything he wanted, and withheld food from me. I finally figured it out after high school and joined the gym, but to this day (I’m 32) I still battle with overeating and probably always will. I love to exercise, but since I struggle with my food intake, I am still an overweight person, but a physically strong one, and I do have an unhealthy addiction to weighing myself on the scale. 

     Recently, I started involving my daughter in my home workouts, and I’ve been showing her how to make healthy choices. We go for light jogs together, or she will ride her bike with me while I jog at my pace, and we do step workouts to music and we play just dance on the switch. We do one of these activities every weeknight, and have been for about a month now. 

     Today she asked me if she could get on the scale to see how much she weighs. I explained to her that it’s not about a number on the scale, but how you feel when your body can do things that you didn’t think it could do (even though I admittedly don’t take my own advice when it comes to this). She still wanted to weigh in. I let her. I’m worried that she will develop an unhealthy scale addiction like I have. I don’t want her to go through what I did, and I want her to be healthy. I know that it’s up to me to lay that foundation for her. I’m just unsure if I’m doing it in the right way. 