This article is more unhealthy for young women and men than any meal of deep-fried, bacon wrapped, cheese slathered food could ever be, and I implore you to take a step back to consider the real message you are sending here.
Your personal success is to be commended. It is a task many struggle with and are never able to overcome, but through hard work, you have found triumph and success—congratulations! However, just because you have adopted a healthy lifestyle and found success with it, does not mean that other people who are “large” have not. There are many factors attributing to weight loss, clean eating and regular exercise being only two of those—many people can adopt these two changes into their life and still see very little results. It is a discouraging process it in itself, and they certainly do not need anyone else to contribute to the idea that they should not be happy with themselves unless they are a small size—society does that enough, thank you very much. Be proud of your accomplishment, but don’t condemn others just because they haven’t seen the same results.
I’ll be the first to admit growing up I was not a stick by any means, wore a size medium or large, yet I played sports since I was 4. In high school I ran cross-country, each practice varying between 1-5 mile workouts in addition to ab-work and yoga, then generally a weekly 5k race. While my skinny friends were at home all summer watching TV for most of the day, I was getting up at the crack of dawn to prepare for the upcoming season. They were blessed with great metabolism and a thinner body type, while I inherited a more chubby nature. But I’ll let you be the judge, what would you consider healthier? A small sized person getting their daily exercise by walking down a flight of stairs to sit on a couch and snack on chips, or a large sized person exercising daily and practicing clean eating? Guess what—it doesn’t matter! We were all comfortable with our bodies and lived our lives by what made us happy. I love to run; it is a great way to clear my head, especially when stress is at an all time high—but that doesn’t elevate me above others who prefer to stay inside reading a book or watching reruns of “Friends”. Don’t do something just for the benefits of living healthier, do things that make you happy. For some people, that is focusing less on regular dieting and exercise and more on their career aspirations or practicing another hobby.
So instead of being combative or annoyed when someone pays you a gracious compliment (how audacious of them, seriously the nerve they must have had to acknowledge all that hard work), perhaps take it with a grain of salt or as a chance to promote healthy living. Embrace those Throwback Thursdays and Transformation Tuesdays to acknowledge where you were, because without that past self, you would have never paved the way to the current you. Use them to inspire someone else—if you are passionate about promotion healthy living, do not limit your message to body measurements.
Size doesn’t make you healthy, and neither does clean eating and exercise alone. Being healthy is having a balance in your body AND mind—do not confuse wearing a small clothing size or being in shape with being healthy, because more often than not, the process getting there is only replacing one bad habit with another. I do not know you personally, so I cannot say with certainty—but from the content of this article, you are treading down a dangerous path that could develop into a self-image disorder. You have an anxiety of regaining all that weight you lost, boarding on obsession and fear in order to prevent yourself from relapsing. Don’t let that be your whole story—a few months of living healthier is a start, but it is far from a lifetime of happiness being content in body and mind.
You have a great message and story to share, but it gets loss in the condemning undertone that “fat” people cannot be as happy as “skinny” people—that you cannot love yourself fully until all fat from your body is gone. The “accept yourself as you are” movement is not about condoning overeating or obesity—it is about promoting confidence, self-love, and a healthy mind no matter what you look like. Make good choices for you life, but don’t perpetuate the idea that all “fat” people’s goal should be to get skinny in order to achieve success and happiness in life.
This article is more unhealthy for young women and men than any meal of deep-fried, bacon wrapped, cheese slathered food could ever be, and I implore you to take a step back to consider the real message you are sending here.
Your personal success is to be commended. It is a task many struggle with and are never able to overcome, but through hard work, you have found triumph and success—congratulations! However, just because you have adopted a healthy lifestyle and found success with it, does not mean that other people who are “large” have not. There are many factors attributing to weight loss, clean eating and regular exercise being only two of those—many people can adopt these two changes into their life and still see very little results. It is a discouraging process it in itself, and they certainly do not need anyone else to contribute to the idea that they should not be happy with themselves unless they are a small size—society does that enough, thank you very much. Be proud of your accomplishment, but don’t condemn others just because they haven’t seen the same results.
I’ll be the first to admit growing up I was not a stick by any means, wore a size medium or large, yet I played sports since I was 4. In high school I ran cross-country, each practice varying between 1-5 mile workouts in addition to ab-work and yoga, then generally a weekly 5k race. While my skinny friends were at home all summer watching TV for most of the day, I was getting up at the crack of dawn to prepare for the upcoming season. They were blessed with great metabolism and a thinner body type, while I inherited a more chubby nature. But I’ll let you be the judge, what would you consider healthier? A small sized person getting their daily exercise by walking down a flight of stairs to sit on a couch and snack on chips, or a large sized person exercising daily and practicing clean eating? Guess what—it doesn’t matter! We were all comfortable with our bodies and lived our lives by what made us happy. I love to run; it is a great way to clear my head, especially when stress is at an all time high—but that doesn’t elevate me above others who prefer to stay inside reading a book or watching reruns of “Friends”. Don’t do something just for the benefits of living healthier, do things that make you happy. For some people, that is focusing less on regular dieting and exercise and more on their career aspirations or practicing another hobby.
So instead of being combative or annoyed when someone pays you a gracious compliment (how audacious of them, seriously the nerve they must have had to acknowledge all that hard work), perhaps take it with a grain of salt or as a chance to promote healthy living. Embrace those Throwback Thursdays and Transformation Tuesdays to acknowledge where you were, because without that past self, you would have never paved the way to the current you. Use them to inspire someone else—if you are passionate about promotion healthy living, do not limit your message to body measurements.
Size doesn’t make you healthy, and neither does clean eating and exercise alone. Being healthy is having a balance in your body AND mind—do not confuse wearing a small clothing size or being in shape with being healthy, because more often than not, the process getting there is only replacing one bad habit with another. I do not know you personally, so I cannot say with certainty—but from the content of this article, you are treading down a dangerous path that could develop into a self-image disorder. You have an anxiety of regaining all that weight you lost, boarding on obsession and fear in order to prevent yourself from relapsing. Don’t let that be your whole story—a few months of living healthier is a start, but it is far from a lifetime of happiness being content in body and mind.
You have a great message and story to share, but it gets loss in the condemning undertone that “fat” people cannot be as happy as “skinny” people—that you cannot love yourself fully until all fat from your body is gone. The “accept yourself as you are” movement is not about condoning overeating or obesity—it is about promoting confidence, self-love, and a healthy mind no matter what you look like. Make good choices for you life, but don’t perpetuate the idea that all “fat” people’s goal should be to get skinny in order to achieve success and happiness in life.