Body-shaming is something that I feel very strongly about. Actually, making judgements about someone based on some external characteristic is something I feel very strongly about, and body-shaming is one of those.
If we can all look at someone with the mindset that we don’t know their whole story, the world would be a more peaceful place. This post is to hopefully assist with that mindset in the health world.
Let me start off with a personal story.
I grew up being very small. Not just thin, I’m talking very small. My nickname was Skeletor and my friends in high school literally threw me a party when I finally broke 100 pounds. That small.
And it wasn’t for a lack of eating, I ate a lot. But no matter how much I ate, I always struggled to gain or even maintain weight, and I still do to this day.
At this point, a lot of you are probably thinking, “wow, that must be nice.” But I’d like to invite you to see how that thought process is actually the problem, for a few reasons.
I used to get so worked up over losing weight. I would get discouraged after a hard few weeks of eating and weight lifting, only to see that I lost three pounds. This led to a lot of unhealthy habits like binge eating, over-exercising, and even contemplating using steroids for a brief period of time.
But then I really started to think about things. How the grass is always greener and it’s a lot easier focus on my situation positively than to look things I can’t control in a negative light. I started thinking about the fact that doing unhealthy things because of how others see me is only harming myself at the end of the day.
I’m no where near the weight I’d like to be and I’m a lot thinner than I would prefer. I have to work really, really hard to stay where I’m at and nothing in my health journey has come easy.
But now I’m looking at the process instead of the progress. I’m living a much healthier lifestyle than I used to and I’ve stayed consistent in my journey. If you’re finding yourself in the same situation, that’s a lot to be proud of.
Even if you aren’t necessarily seeing the results you’d like to, but you’re doing all the right things, that’s a great place to be. Yes, it’s absolutely discouraging, but the results will come and it’s a a lot better than the alternative. Remember, weight is not always a reflection of health.
To close, I just want to give a healthy reminder on the, “wow, that must be nice,” response.
If someone confides in you about the difficulties that come with being too thin, do not respond that way. Trivializing their struggles because of your own is a dangerous response. Keep in mind that someone telling you this has probably gotten that response nearly every time and has never gotten to experience empathy in response to this.
We don’t have to understand someone else’s struggles to respect them.
CSPfit 