Tonight I did not make the most mature decision. I decided it would be a fantastic idea to eat Trader Joe's White Cheddar Corn Puffs and Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds for dinner. Both delicious. Both dangerous. And now it's midnight, I am on a sugar high, and I feel like barfing. This is what adulthood is like, right?
After my embarrassing pig out tonight, I realized that some dietary changes are desperately needing to happen. I did what I used to do when I was at my fittest and I went on Pinterest to get some ideas and motivation to get out of this icky, sugary, cheese-puffy slump and get back on my healthy habit train. But when I got onto the Health and Fitness section of the site, I was all but motivated.
About a year and a half ago, I would have gone to the same exact site, looked at the same exact posts, read the same words, and gotten my fire back. Tonight, I was furious and plain disappointed. The habits still need to change, and believe me, I will be eating obsessively healthy tomorrow to make up for the zillion calories I ate today. But what I saw online was the opposite of motivating.
Nothing I saw was empowering, or engaging, or even slightly inspiring. I saw women with amazing bodies who either are professional fitness models or naturally tiny. Neither of which am I. I have naturally wide hips, a metabolism that slows down if I look at a potato chip, and a hereditary predisposition to have some extra plumpness on my bones. That is all fine, but I'm a dancer and a trainer and I like to stay trim because it makes me feel good and makes my life easier.
I am an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer. I am on the certification exam team for the American College of Sports Medicine. My college degree is in Health and Wellness Promotion. I have dedicated my life to the wellness and physical well-being of others. But one of the biggest things I've learned in my industry is that physical health, stamina, weight loss, and maintenance comes in so many different colors. With the assistance of TV commercials, movies, and celebrities, social media has taught us all that healthy equals skinny. Or healthy equals curvy. Or skinny equals worthy. Or _________ equals _________. We all have these ideas in our mind that one specific thing equals the other specific thing.
Enough.
The message that I read in those "fitspo" posts tonight was humiliation, degradation, embarrassment, unnecessary comparison, and false information.
[Above]
Coming from a strictly professional opinion, many of these articles are
absolutely, flat-out false advertising. Like this one above, some articles are promising to
lose a certain amount of weight in a certain amount of time. This specific one is unhealthy and, dare I say, dangerous. This type of habit is what kick-starts eating disorders. According to the American College of Sports Medicine and the CDC, healthy, sustainable weight loss is around 1-2 lbs a week. Your body will just be getting rid of water if it's any faster than that. (Or even worse, pure muscle.)
Some articles are promising to look like the portrayed body in the picture. "Look like this by the summer". "Get this body fast!"
Yeah, okay.
Do you know how many different body types and metabolism combinations there are out there? Thousands.
Some women (and men) have a naturally tight and thin frame.
And that is okay.
Some people are naturally curvy.
And that is okay.
Some people have a hard time gaining weight because their metabolism is so fast.
And that is okay.
Some people are top-heavy or bottom-heavy or everything-heavy or nothing-heavy. And guess what?
That is okay.
This article very well could have some validity to it. I have not done enough research to know how to lose weight based on your body type. But this graphic is insinuating that the body types on the bottom of the image are not okay and need to be changed. Look at the body language they were created with - chin down, hands behind their back, bad posture... They were created to give the subliminal, or in my opinion blatant, message that they are not comfortable with the way they look. This is horrendous. The women at the top are gorgeous. The cartoon women at the bottom are gorgeous. Every single one of them. They are all just different; none of them have a "this body type" or "that body type". Why are we fighting "just different"?
What broke my heart the most while scrolling further and further down was the language that was used on some of the graphics.
So much of what I see today on the internet is "what you are doing right this moment is wrong". What you are thinking of doing later is not okay.
If you are not doing something right this minute that is making you look different than you are right now, then you should be ashamed. You should feel embarrassed for not working toward a body that you very well might not be naturally made for.
Why?
Why are we so obsessed with looking a certain way? I certainly know that even if I worked every single day for hours a day to look a certain way, I would still not have the body in these images without plastic surgery and absolute deep, insanity. But that's just me. I would not be happy living that lifestyle.
Again, many of these people are either professional fitness models and/or naturally made for these body types. If that is the case, then that is fantastic for them. I hope that is what they want out of life. And I hope they are happy with their results because by good lord, they deserve it. They deserve to show off their hard work. They deserve to wear what makes them feel comfortable. They deserve a slow clap. And I will tip my hat to them. That much hard work for anything is impressive. But when I see something that says "what you look like is not okay, you should look like this" is when I lose my cool.
No.
No, I don't want to look like that because it's not me. No, I don't want to look like that because it means I have to starve myself, or I have to do 8,000 squats in an hour, or I have to have surgery, or I have to do whatever it is that I would need to to look like this person. Because according to what that sentence says, I do not have what it takes to be worthy of approval.
[Above]
This woman is gorgeous in both pictures. She did not need to lose weight. At all. If that's what she wanted to do, then good for her! Clearly she worked very hard. But this is giving the message that if you look like her at her week 1, then you have work to do. I hate that. God forbid you don't have a thigh gap. You need to not be satisfied with the body that looks like that because it could look like this instead.
"Lose Your Love Handles". Similar to the previous comment, this is convincing women that if you have ONE FREAKING INCH of fat on your hips, you should lose it. If you have something different than what is pictured, then you are wrong and it must be changed.
No it does not. Your extra inch of fat on your hips (or like me, extra ACTUAL BONE) does not make you less worthy. It does not make you less wanted. It does not mean your brain is incredible or your ass is amazing or your eyes are mesmerizing. Your hips, your boobs, your shoulders, your wrists, your ear lobes do not define who you are.
Plain and simple, I know many thicker women who can "rock their skinnies" better than anyone else.
You do not need to be skinny to wear skinny jeans.
You do not need to have this to do that.
You are amazing.
You are perfect.
Stop looking elsewhere for motivation. Stop comparing yourself to someone else. Stop all of this negativity. No more photoshop. No more alterations. No more surgery to alter these gorgeous, amazing, capable, powerful machines that we were given.
Explore your body. See what it can do. See what your brain can do. Test your physical limits. What can you achieve with the god-given body you have right this minute?
Maybe the greatest thing you can do right this minute is breast-feed. Maybe you embrace your body's ability to hug your wife. The greatest thing you could do right now could be to solve a very difficult algebra equation. And you very well could go run a marathon tomorrow.
We all have different abilities and qualities and attributes.
Let's celebrate that instead.
Lose weight because you want to feel good. Do a crossword puzzle because you want to increase your brain elasticity. Gain weight because you want to be stronger or fit into clothes better. Work out because you want a healthy heart or because you don't want to struggle to walk up two flights of stairs. Eat well because you want to have more energy, a clearer mind, and less risk of disease.
Or change because you want to prove to yourself that you are capable of making positive changes.
Don't change your body because the internet says your body isn't a good enough body.
Don't change the way you think your thinks because it's not the popular think to think.
Change your body because you want to feel better.
Change your life because you want to be a better you.
Or don't change at all.
We're all pretty incredible as is.
Love,
Erin
