I’ve written about the health journey I started late last year. My goal was to find optimal health for me—the exact spot where I felt good and my health hit optimum levels. I was tired of being tired, achy, puffy, and grumpy.

I needed to find my equilibrium.

A side effect of the process? I lost weight.

Many people who see me daily haven’t noticed. People who haven’t seen me in months typically say that I look fantastic. Yet there’s a subset that says I look too thin or different (one said “weird”)—as though I’ve lost too much weight.

I’d listen if they had serious concern. I don’t want to get “skinny.” I haven’t trimmed down too much—I’m not certain of the poundage because I don’t weigh myself—but I have needed some new clothes. Clearly, though, the concern isn’t sincere.

How do I know?

The ones who seem most worried immediately follow their “skinny” comments by saying that they need to lose weight—and asking how I did it. They’re not concerned. They’re jealous.

Why?

Why does every woman you meet believe she needs to trim down—even the trimmest of the trim?

I find it sad that our culture focuses on thinness over health. Frightening skinniness is not healthful, either, yet that’s what most fashion magazines tout. People do some of the most unhealthful things to lose weight. Starvation. “Cleanses.” Colonics. Fad diets they can’t sustain more than a few weeks. (Remember the Grapefruit Diet? How about Atkins?)

Let’s crusade for healthfulness—not weight. Weight is a side effect. And people can be healthy at many different scale weights. We are not numbers. Each body is different.

The trick to healthy living? Loving your body by eating well and exercising. Healthy people chronically live healthfully. Does that take discipline? Yes.

And it’s worth it.