Missy Elliott and Her Weight Loss

Looks good doesn't she? I am getting there very slowly. Hard to believe some of her fans were upset over her weight loss.

Missy Elliott has spoken up about her weight loss after fans at her website forum started questioning why she thinned down. The answer was simple - it was to save her life.

"I was very disturbed to find that a few people were angry at my weight loss" she says in a statement at her website, missy-elliott.com. "To all my fans who are upset about this, I still represent for overweight adults and kids but I am also now painfully and personally aware of the health issues. Many of you know, and for those who don't, that I was diagnosed with hypertension. This very serious condition can lead to strokes and heart-attacks and very often death. It has made me seriously ill in the past and my mother was also hospitalized after a heart attack a few years ago resulting from high blood pressure".

What happened to Missy's mother together with the death of Big Pun and illness of Luther Vandross worried her enough to take affirmative action. "I am an only child, I am all my mother has" she says. "I love myself and I love the people I would leave behind if I don't take care of my health. Weight was my issue and I had to drop the pounds. Look at Big Pun and Luther Vandross, I did not want to end up like them".

However fans thought she was making fun of overweight people, especially on her latest video. "For those who felt that I was poking fun in the "Pass the Dutch" video, I simply meant that you should dress right for your body size" she says. "I have always been a big girl myself and I always took pride in the fact that I never had to change my body to be considered beautiful or successful. I think I have always represented pride in yourself no matter what size you are. If those of you who are angry really loved me, you would stand behind me and support my effort to get healthy. The day we lost Aaliyah it affected the world, so I pray that you'll support me and help me to stay around. I love each and every one of you because without you, there's no me".

You can chase a butterfly all over the field and never catch it. But if you sit quietly in the grass it will come and sit on your shoulder.
~~Unknown~~