Healthy Vs. Skinny- My take.
What is the common view of a person in good health? Is there even a common view?
Is it a number? Is it a pant size? Are you only considered healthy if you work out 7 days a week and eat tilapia with broccoli for every meal?
Why when we give compliments to someone we usually say, "Oh you look like you've lost weight!" (Or insert another weight related compliment.)
Up until the age of 17 I was obsessed with the notion that health equaled how skinny one was. A super model did not look like she was under weight to me, that was the normal and everyone else was unhealthy or they ate too much. It was there fault if they didn't look like the people in movies because the people who were in the movies looked like they did. Now, don't get me wrong, I was not a skinny child. I was not a naturally small teenager. But I was convinced I could make myself look like the movie stars because they were proof that someone could look so good and be really "healthy". What I did not know, (and what I still struggle with) is realizing that my body is made completely differently than anyone elses'. Let's take one of my personal girl crushes, Jessie James Decker. She is definitely one of the more 'real' TV personalities/ singers out there, showing the world that she has to work for the body she has as well as her love of good food. Now, if any of you have seen Jessie James Decker it is easy to tell that she is a petite woman; short, tiny and very pretty. She is about 5 ft even and I would estimate about 115 pounds.
Now, it has taken me years and I mean years to realize that I will never have the body that someone like Jessie James Decker or even my own sisters. How many of you actually look at how tall the celebrities/people you want to look like are? How many of you look at the natural body type of the celebrity? My point is, for each person, looking healthy is completely unique.
I am 5 feet 11 inches, I weigh much more than 115 pounds and I am healthy. I spent much of my middle school life (my height being around 5' 6-8") thinking that 130 lbs was the biggest I would want to be. Well guess what, 130 came and went. In High School, I went through a bunch of different things that caused me to gain weight and when my weight tipped 200 lbs. Towards the end of my junior year I started losing weight and got to a good (for me) 175 lbs. Remember how I said I always thought 130 lbs was the biggest I should weight? Well that changed when I met a boy, fell in love and suddenly it was very important to me that I weight at least 5 lbs less than he did. This guy was in shape and I started doing whatever I had to to lose more weight. This guy never made me feel insecure with my weight, he never did anything to make me think that I was less to him simply because I weighed more. My second bout of anorexia came because I was so delusional to think that I could be loved less by him just because I weighed more than he did. He was healthy at his weight, and I was healthy at 175lbs. I started losing more and more weight, and when I got to 160 lbs, issues started happening with me; I started losing hair, I was tired all the time, I was subsisting on caffeine and half meals. My boyfriend (at the time) and my mother sat me down and told me that this had to stop, it wasn't healthy and my health was declining. It hit me then that maybe my body wasn't built to be less than 160 lbs and also be healthy the way that I was doing it.
Now, this means for me that I could never physically look like Jessie James Decker because not only am I 11 inches taller than she, but also 115 lbs would make me look like I am a skeleton with skin.
Girls should know that they need not be ashamed of how their body is, just because they do not look like someone they think they should look like. That does not mean that they are "fat". Each body is built differently and each person carries weight differently.
This picture speaks so loudly because it shows how weight is truly just a number. How healthy one is should not be based on a bunch of numbers.
It is easy for people to feel bad about how their bodies look when they see photos on Instagram, on TV, walking through the mall or seeing others on the beach. I guess what I am trying to say, in so many words is, that it is important to not be ashamed of our bodies. It is important not to think your worth is less because of how you look. Bring healthy is what we as a society, need to focus on. And the first step to being healthy is loving yourself. Now I am not so good at being positive about my body all the time either, but I have to try because I want to not only be physically healthy but also mentally healthy. How about you?
Is it a number? Is it a pant size? Are you only considered healthy if you work out 7 days a week and eat tilapia with broccoli for every meal?
Why when we give compliments to someone we usually say, "Oh you look like you've lost weight!" (Or insert another weight related compliment.)
Up until the age of 17 I was obsessed with the notion that health equaled how skinny one was. A super model did not look like she was under weight to me, that was the normal and everyone else was unhealthy or they ate too much. It was there fault if they didn't look like the people in movies because the people who were in the movies looked like they did. Now, don't get me wrong, I was not a skinny child. I was not a naturally small teenager. But I was convinced I could make myself look like the movie stars because they were proof that someone could look so good and be really "healthy". What I did not know, (and what I still struggle with) is realizing that my body is made completely differently than anyone elses'. Let's take one of my personal girl crushes, Jessie James Decker. She is definitely one of the more 'real' TV personalities/ singers out there, showing the world that she has to work for the body she has as well as her love of good food. Now, if any of you have seen Jessie James Decker it is easy to tell that she is a petite woman; short, tiny and very pretty. She is about 5 ft even and I would estimate about 115 pounds.
Now, it has taken me years and I mean years to realize that I will never have the body that someone like Jessie James Decker or even my own sisters. How many of you actually look at how tall the celebrities/people you want to look like are? How many of you look at the natural body type of the celebrity? My point is, for each person, looking healthy is completely unique.
I am 5 feet 11 inches, I weigh much more than 115 pounds and I am healthy. I spent much of my middle school life (my height being around 5' 6-8") thinking that 130 lbs was the biggest I would want to be. Well guess what, 130 came and went. In High School, I went through a bunch of different things that caused me to gain weight and when my weight tipped 200 lbs. Towards the end of my junior year I started losing weight and got to a good (for me) 175 lbs. Remember how I said I always thought 130 lbs was the biggest I should weight? Well that changed when I met a boy, fell in love and suddenly it was very important to me that I weight at least 5 lbs less than he did. This guy was in shape and I started doing whatever I had to to lose more weight. This guy never made me feel insecure with my weight, he never did anything to make me think that I was less to him simply because I weighed more. My second bout of anorexia came because I was so delusional to think that I could be loved less by him just because I weighed more than he did. He was healthy at his weight, and I was healthy at 175lbs. I started losing more and more weight, and when I got to 160 lbs, issues started happening with me; I started losing hair, I was tired all the time, I was subsisting on caffeine and half meals. My boyfriend (at the time) and my mother sat me down and told me that this had to stop, it wasn't healthy and my health was declining. It hit me then that maybe my body wasn't built to be less than 160 lbs and also be healthy the way that I was doing it.
Now, this means for me that I could never physically look like Jessie James Decker because not only am I 11 inches taller than she, but also 115 lbs would make me look like I am a skeleton with skin.
Girls should know that they need not be ashamed of how their body is, just because they do not look like someone they think they should look like. That does not mean that they are "fat". Each body is built differently and each person carries weight differently.
It is easy for people to feel bad about how their bodies look when they see photos on Instagram, on TV, walking through the mall or seeing others on the beach. I guess what I am trying to say, in so many words is, that it is important to not be ashamed of our bodies. It is important not to think your worth is less because of how you look. Bring healthy is what we as a society, need to focus on. And the first step to being healthy is loving yourself. Now I am not so good at being positive about my body all the time either, but I have to try because I want to not only be physically healthy but also mentally healthy. How about you?
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