Hello everyone, it's been a few days and I've been doing a lot of thinking. Lately all I seem to read about on facebook is why fat shaming is bad, why the thigh gap obsession is bad, why magazines are bad, why we're all beautiful. Honestly I'm very happy that so many people are similar minded in that we don't all need to be size zeros to be beautiful.
I'm going to try to word this as best as I can because it's not my aim to offend people. All to often I see the words "love you the way you are" which I completely agree with. We should all be comfortable in our own bodies and find the beauty we all have. I'm not saying don't be happy as you are. It's just these articles say love yourself if you're a size 20 or if you're a size 6. Be happy with the way you look and embrace your beauty that you have. Great, great message... except one tiny little thing. I swear my entire life I was taught in schools that we come in all shapes and sizes, but some are healthier than others. If you're 100lbs over what is considered a healthy weight for your body than I think that you should maybe consider that, though you love yourself, you're not treating your body as though you love it.
I guess ultimately I wish there was a bigger push for a healthy life style versus what lately seems like skinny girl shaming. It's not healthy to be under weight. It's not healthy to be over weight. You want to live a full and happy life? Why not focus taking better care of it? I get that we're busy people and rarely do we have the time or money to look like those women and men on tv, but we don't have to. Celebrities and models get paid to look a certain way- something I've always thought was stupid and completely unfair- we don't. I don't have to be a size 0 to feel beautiful, but I could cut down on the junk food I eat. I could also try to make sure my life is just a little bit more active. Who physically doesn't have time to add a twenty minute walk? Or ten minute ab work out in the living room? Honestly there's even exercises you can do sitting at a desk all day.
We don't need to lose a bunch of weight or have the perfect six pack, but we should consider taking better care of our bodies. Do you really need a whole giant bag of Doritos? Because honestly I think I'm not a terrible person telling you the answer is no, you don't. It tastes good, so eat some of it, but why do you need to eat the entire bag?
My challenge to women is not to settle. Our bodies are what gives us life and to treat them poorly seems like a great insult. I'm not saying you're fat. I'm not saying you're a bad person. I'm not saying you have to agree with my opinions. I am saying that I believe there's a beauty to taking better care of ourselves, no matter how small the change is. For me, I'm trying to switch my caffeine habit over to green tea and follow the very very basic workout guidelines I set for myself. For others it could simply be taking your dog on a fifteen minute walk before work, cooking a home meal with fruits and veggies instead of going to McDonalds, or drinking more water instead of pop. Like I said, little things because I'm not going to lie, taking better care of your body does make you feel better. You have more energy and life seems brighter. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way.
If you could make one change in your life to live slightly healthier what would it be? Try it out for two weeks and tell me how you feel after. I'm a week in to my "healthier living" and I can already feel less tired, less stressed, and more alive.
ash.blogger.mn@gmail.com
Cheers,
Ash
