Worth the Weight Read Online Free PDF

low sandals. Tiny gold hoop earrings and a thin gold chain were all the jewelry she would add. Casual, yet classic.
    “Of course you can wear sleeveless.”
    She looked in the full-length mirror one more time at another outfit. She gave it a quick glance, as she did with the other five outfits she’d tried on for her friends.
    “Why do you do that?” Katie asked.
    “Do what?”
    “Look in the mirror for about five seconds per outfit. You obviously care what you’re going to wear tonight or else you wouldn’t have us putting our two cents in, but you hardly give it a second glance.”
    “If it were me, I’d be standing in front of the mirror for a good twenty minutes with each outfit, turning every angle, sitting down in the outfit, the whole nine yards. You barely look at it,” Alison added.
    Lizzie shrugged. “It doesn’t matter how long I look in the mirror, I don’t see myself anyway, so why bother. I can get the idea with a quick look. Besides that’s why you guys are here, to back me up.” At Katie and Alison’s puzzled looks she tried to elaborate. “I mean, I obviously look in the mirror when I get dressed or do my hair or make up, but...when I look in the mirror, I see parts, not the whole. It only takes a second to check on the parts that I know may be troublesome, so, I look at those quickly, and if they pass inspection, then it’s a go.”
    “What do you mean parts, not the whole?” Of course something like this would fascinate Alison the psychologist.
    “I only see myself in parts...when I look at myself. I can’t see me, just my parts. I’ve become very detached from my body image, I’ve had to, or I’d have gone crazy.”
    “I’m not getting it,” Katie said. “Put the outfit we picked back on.” The women waited as she stripped out of the last outfit she’d tried and put on the white blouse and shorts once more.
    There was no modesty or embarrassment while Lizzie was only in her bra and panties. Not with the these women. Never had been. Never would be. Even when she was twice the size she was now. Even when Katie had felt that her body was betraying her by crying barrenness. Even after Alison had her appendix removed and there were bandages and scars. Since kindergarten, really. It was a sense of security that Lizzie took for granted.
    Once sh e had the shirt and shorts on she turned to Katie for further instructions.
    “Okay, now turn to the mirror and quickly tell me what you see.”
    It only took seconds for her to look and answer. “Arms. Not as tan as I’d like, stretch marks underneath, I’ll have to hold my arms close to my sides. No high fiving,” she chuckled, imagining greeting Finn with a high five. Definitely not his style.
    “What else?”
    She glanced again to the mirror. “Bust. The buttons don’t gap across my boobs. That’s good.”
    “What else?”
    “Tummy. The pleats of the shorts lay flat, they don’t pull even when I put my hands in the pockets.”
    Alison joined in, “What else?”
    “Thighs. The shorts don’t cling to my inner thighs or accentuate my saddlebags.”
    “What else?”
    “That’s it.”
    “What do you mean that’s it?”
    “That’s it, that’s all I see. Arms. Bust. Waist. Thighs. All sectioned off like that.”
    Lizzie caught Katie and Alison exchanging looks.
    “Don’t read too much into it. It’s just the way I look in the mirror, nothing else.”
    “I don’t know. Seems to me you could make a case for the fact that you divide yourself into parts,” Alison said, putting her analyst’s cap on. “It’s all very Gestalt. The whole is less than the sum of all parts. Something like that. I forget. I always thought he was full of crap anyway.”
    Lizzie waved Alison off. “You do the same thing, everybody does, you just don’t realize it.” She noticed her friends once again giving each other dubious looks. “I’ll tell you one other thing about this outfit.”
    “Yes?”
    “The shirt is tucked in and I’m