Since I am hopelessly disorganized and can’t find my camera cord to upload some awesome recent food pics, I am going to use this post to discuss some body image issues and make bad Zoolander jokes 
.
There is more to life than being really, really ridiculously good looking, but I’m pretty bummed about gaining some weight recently. I have no idea how much I’ve gained (I am officially frightened of the scale), but I do know that bought a dress a month before New Year’s Eve that no longer fit on the actual night. Also, I’ve been torturing myself trying to wear my favorite jeans than now give me muffin top.
I realize that it is so stupid for me to stress this much since I am at a healthy weight, but somehow it is ingrained in me to never be satisfied with the way I look. I remember the insecurities starting very young. And it definitely wasn’t just me…other girls said negative things about their body when we were kids. A couple examples:
- Once at a swim meet when I was 8-years-old, I was hanging out around the pool with some other girls my age. Everyone was making comments on how fat they were (no one was actually fat). I chimed in and agreed that I was fat, too. One girl looked at me and said, “Yeah, I guess you are kind of wide….” Later that night, I told another friend about the situation, and she assured me that I was thinner than the girl who called me “wide.” Why were we talking about this when we were all healthy weight 8-year-olds?!!
- At the very beginning of the year in 6th grade, we all got our height and weight measured as part of a physical fitness assessment. I was 4’11” and 82 pounds (normal for that age). My best friend was similar height, but weighed 78-ish. I remember wishing that I still weighed under 80 pounds. Pre-puberty, I had already learned that weighing less is considered more desirable.
I’m curious, does anyone else have similar experiences?
Americans are more concerned about health and nutrition than any one else in the world, yet we have the most health problems. While obesity becomes more prevalent, I think that being thin has become more enviable than being rich (at least for women).
America is so fixated on being thin that even normal weight women feel bad when they gain a little. Instead of weight loss, we should be focused on eating real foods that nourish us (apples are good, fortified cereal bars are not) and enjoying being active (play a sport, talk a walk or run outside; don’t just do the stationary bike while texting and reading a magazine– I see this EVERY TIME I go to the gym).
I know that I am probably preaching to the converted as most healthy living bloggers seem to have a healthy attitude towards food and body image, but I struggle sometimes, and I’m sure someone else who is reading this does, too.
I wrote this post with the intention of giving some tips on having a better body image, but I’m getting stuck. Besides watching morbidly obese people on Biggest Loser attempt to work out (Whoa that person weighs 400 pounds and can barely walk on a treadmill! I am so thin and in shape!), how do you put body image issues in perspective?
Now on to some good things that have been going on in my life recently:
- My Magic Bullet blender is no longer a virgin
. Yay smoothies!!! - Despite the fact that I can’t seem to lose any fat, I have been gaining some muscle lifting weights 3 x a week. My arms actually have some definition!
- I’ve made some really healthy and awesome dishes that I will blog about when my camera cord is located…
- THE LOST SEASON PREMIERE IS TOMORROW!!! “NO MORE QUESTIONS, ONLY ANSWERS.” Who else is excited for the final season?
