To get my mind off of some of the bathroom behavior some readers (oh no, not you) clearly felt comfortable revealing in the comments but not to their boyfriend or girlfriend or spouse (strange, true), I turned my attention to healthy living. Surely, I thought, there are aspects of our diet, exercise and well-being we don't feel comfortable sharing with the ones we love.
Before that thought was fully formed in my mind, I knew exactly what it was I could not reveal to a partner. My weight.
And really, that holds true whether the scale is up or down for me, whether I'm with a long-term partner or have just met someone new. It was at that point I remembered that a guy I dated for about five minutes a million years ago asked me to tell him what size I wore. At the time, it was a smaller size than I'd been wearing for years, but I am sure when I gasped he knew I was uncomfortable with telling him anyway. He back-pedaled, explaining awkwardly that he might like to buy me clothes (which was weird enough in itself) and so it would be nice to have all my sizes and measurements.
Umm, no thanks. A gift card will do nicely. That's what I thought then, and honestly, what I think now, years later and with a body image that is thankfully much, much better.
Even when I was with my (almost-ex) husband, I cringed to let him see the weight I tapped into my heart rate monitor or even stand too close to the scale when we both joined Weight Watchers before our wedding. Analyze as much as you'd like, but it just felt like my size and weight were my private domain and any way my spouse supported me could be done without specific statistics.
What about you? Would you tell your partner how much you weigh? Does (clothing) size matter when you're being honest with your spouse?
[photo credit: Getty Images]
