I've lost about 30 pounds in the past year/year and a half and have received lot's of comments from well-meaning people. Dropping from a size 10/8 to a size 0 has caused me to receive a lot of attention from my friends, family and acquaintances. Comments like "Wow! You look SO great, you're basically skin and bones now!" or "Where did you go?! I can't even find you anymore!" or "You look amazing, what did you do??" Were all meant with the best intentions...but they just kind of started hurting after while.

Like, was I unattractive before? Why do my looks have such a big impact on how much people notice or care about me? I'm the same person as before...why did I become so much more valuable now that there's less of me?

I came up with a generic "Thank you! I lost it all at camp because I decided to try eating a vegetarian diet. Between the physical demands of camp and eating a vegetarian diet I just kind of lost the weight!"

After a few months of repeating the same generic answer over and over again I started wanting to scream "I'M THE SAME PERSON OKAY, WHAT DOES IT MATTER WHAT I EAT OR WHAT I LOOK LIKE."

Not only did I receive comment after comment about my size but people looked at me different, people watched what I ate with curiosity and they started commenting on my eating habits a ton.

Now I am a very health conscious person. I eat a mainly plant-based diet , control my snacks and avoid bread, red meats and greasy/fried foods as much as possible. I enjoy cooking and I love vegetables. So when people started watching what I ate they had even more comments about how they could never eat what I do, how I need to eat a burger every once in a while or to try and get me to eat what they were eating.

All of these comments and the attention really bothered me because my eating habits are not who I am. They're a part of me, but I am way more than just what I eat! I love music, Myers-Briggs and Star Wars. I am dying to get a cat and enjoy playing soccer and volleyball. I can do a jigsaw puzzle like no ones business and would challenge anyone to a Bible Trivia contest. Ask me about Sherlock, ask me about music, ask me about more than my food intake.

While I actually love talking about food and recipes, now I'm kind of jaded on the subject and only feel like talking about it with people that I know care about my person.

A person is more than the size of their body parts. Just because the size of mine changed doesn't mean that I deserve any more or less attention than I did when I took up more space.

I enjoy being a size zero and I enjoy eating the food I make myself.

Live your life and love it, love the food you eat and dress in a way that you find attractive and that makes you feel confident. If you don't like something? Change it! If you're unhealthy then change your habits until you are healthy again!

Live your life to the fullest but don't make me feel like a freak for living mine the way I enjoy it.