Tags
binge eating, Celebrities, clean eating, comfort eating, definition of diet, diet industry, diet rant, diet scam, eating disorders, full figured women, getting healthy, gym memberships, healthy diet, how to lose weight, over eating, too skinny, ugly mantra
With New Years right around the corner, you know what that means… New Years Resolutions!! And that means DIETS!!!
Let the rant begin!!
I hate calling anything we’re doing a diet!!! Ugghhh!! That four letter word is almost the worst of them all… The official definition (per Wikipedia) of Diet is –
In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism.[1] Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. However, there is no total consensus on what constitutes a healthy diet.
Does this in any way reflect the ugly 4 letter word we as a society have grotesquely manipulated it into or that the media has spun for their own agendas?? Not even close!!
If you Google ‘diet’ you’ll get over 462 MILLION hits instantly!! A little ‘diet’ obsessed aren’t we?? Are we looking for answers as to what is healthy and what isn’t or is it all about losing 5 to 10 vanity pounds or the 50 lbs of baby fat or the 100+ lbs that we have put on not being able to deal with what life hands us?? Diet is ALL about how much weight can I lose and how fast can I lose it!! And now it isn’t even just the diet, OH NO, it’s the pills, injections, drops, shakes, nip this tuck that, all the way to invasive body surgery. And still that doesn’t touch on the exercise equipment, programs, videos and the most prevalent used (or should I say UNUSED) expense – the holy grail of all – the gym membership. Every last one of them preaching to have the answers that have evaded us all these years…my pill is different…this treadmill will melt the fat off before your eyes…our gym is open 24/7 so you can get fit regardless of your busy schedule…all you have to do is count this, remove that, add some of this and completely change this and you’ll be a skinny bitch in 6 weeks!! GUARANTEED!!! Or your money back so long as the full moon falls on the first Tuesday of this month and your mothers name is June and she’s the first-born. Otherwise you’re just shit out of luck and they’ve instantly made Millions of dollars off your desperation for an easy fix and surprise – You. Are. Still. Fat.
Why do I so violently despise the ‘Diet Industry’?? Easy…I’ve fallen for each and every one of these schemes at one point or another!! And given away a bunch of my cash because I bought into the ‘dream’ they sell about how wonderful it is on the skinny side of life. Apparently skinny people don’t have any problems, are instantly beautiful, live a life of luxury and get everything they want and then some. I must admit though that the Diet pushers are only half to blame for this illusion. Society and the media have pushed that illusion in our faces forever!! The horrific rag magazines at every grocery checkout spouts the newest diet crazy be it eating only Mediterranean food or the latest pill the celebrities are popping to lose a few pounds. Or how about those awful paparazzi pics with 90% naked celebrities in string bikinis with their collar bones jetting out as if counting their ribs and looking like a skeleton in science class is really what Sexy is all about?!?!? But the magazines aren’t even the worst of the offenders!! Oh HELL NO!! Don’t think about turning on the TV!! Every commercial, news station or regular program is subliminally telling us – especially us women – that unless you are a size 2, you won’t get the man, you won’t get the job, you won’t have friends, you aren’t worthy – instead you are ugly, undisciplined, disgusting and a waste of space!! Think I’m wrong?? Turn the TV on, any channel…count the number of actresses, models, spokes people you see that are over a size 6 (and that’s being generous). The list will short if you can find any at all.
Thus the cycle begins and ends with us in the fridge grabbing whatever we can get our hands on because we feel ugly and unworthy… The internal hate mantra goes on and on – ‘I’m fat, I’m ugly, I’m stupid, I’m gross, I’m fat, I’m worthless, What’s the point??, I can’t do this, I’m fat, It’s too hard, I’m not worth it, They’ll laugh at me if I even try, I’m fat, I can’t go to the gym with all those people, I’m fat, No one cares anyway, This is just the way I am I guess, I’m fat, Whatever, I’m disgusting, I can’t do this – I’ll be FAT forever”. It sings in our heads all the time but gets especially louder when we’re confronted with life’s inevitable curve balls.
The saddest part…the horrible irony… NONE OF IT IS TRUE!!!
Fat is in the eye of the beholder. Think about it!! No seriously, stop and think about it!! If I weigh 300 lbs most people would instantly think OMG she is seriously FAT!! But what if I used to weigh 400 lbs?? Doesn’t losing 100lbs make a difference?? Can I not celebrate the huge victory of losing that much weight just because society/people make assumptions that are simply NOT TRUE?? Or what if I’m 6’5 tall and have biceps bigger than your thighs?? Am I still FAT because of the number on the scale?? (be careful answering that one, I think she could kick your ass if you piss her off!!) At the end of the day – it’s just a freakin number!! Do you relay your worth as a human being based on your house number?? Or the last 4 of your social?? Or the transaction number on the receipt from the gas station?? NO!! That would be ridiculous!! The scale is just a number…a gage…one of many!! There are some people who are healthier at 200lbs than at the doctor recommended 125lbs. Or how about the opposite end of this…people (women in particular) who starve themselves, exercise for hours and hours on end and take pills/shakes/drops just to look like the model in the magazine or on the runway in their weak sickly way?? Is that better than having a little muffin top?? Is that healthy?? NO WAY!! It’s not worth it!! Each of us is beautifully unique!! Remember, it’s just a gage…a number…nothing more!!
Fat doesn’t equal ugly. Think about it!! There are lots of men married to us plump gals, some of us always plump others of us once skinny now plump – regardless they are married/engaged/dating us. Some men prefer plump. Stop…let that sink in for just a moment… Your man may desire you more because of your size. There are lots of men that are into curves and I say God Bless Em!!! There are countries all over the world that prefer bigger women. And no, it’s not some little countries you’ve never heard of!! Tahiti, South Africa, Jamaica and Fiji top the list where full-figured women are more coveted than the twigs. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!! Don’t sell yourself short because of your broad hips!! There is a mate out there that will find those hips to be the sexiest part of you!! Embrace them, flaunt them but don’t hide yourself away because of them…you’re selling yourself short and denying the man of your dreams his mate!!
Fat doesn’t mean gross!! Think about it!! Gross to me is unkept, unclean, ungroomed, smelly etc. Most heavy-set people I know go way above and beyond on the hygiene routines because of this stigma. Being Fat and having greasy hair do NOT go hand in hand. Lots of skinny people don’t wash or groom regularly so why do we get labeled as the unclean ones?? There is NO reason!! It’s just a generalization that was applied to Fat people and somewhere along the way you chose to start believing. STOP IT RIGHT NOW!!!
The one I find myself falling into over and over again is – What’s the point?? What’s the point of doing my hair?? The only thing anyone sees is Fat anyway?? Why put on make-up?? Why pick out cute clothes?? Why coordinate my jewelry?? Why paint my nails?? Why splurge on a pedi?? Why spend all that time and money on myself when the only thing anyone sees is a FAT girl trying too hard to be ‘normal’?? Let’s face it, we are all familiar with having a FAT DAY – nothing fits right, your jeans are too tight, the shirt is too short, your shoelaces feel like they’re miles away… Yep, we all have those days. But the trick is to only allow what could be a day to be a brief moment in time. It’s going to happen, that’s life, but it’s our choice to allow the ugly Fat mantra to spin repeatedly in our heads.
So what is my point in this long ass rant?? It all started with hearing about all these New Year’s Resolutions…being bombarded with ads to lose weight and quit smoking. Realizing how many people are signing up at the gym right this instant thinking that the membership alone will shed pounds but in reality 98% of us won’t follow through and the gym owner is the one reaping all the benefits!! It’s enough to make me want to pull my hair out and scream!! So instead y’all get to listen to my rant instead…
I have Goals for the new year… GOALS – NOT Resolutions!!! I have lots of em in fact and they cover every aspect of our lives!! Some focused around us getting healthier others around growing as a couple, some on saving more money and even more for our career and so on and so on. Balance is key!!
If you, and you alone, (not your spouse, not your co-workers, not your family, not your bestie, not your hairdresser, not your neighbors, not your ‘friends’ on facebook, not your clients, not your business partner, not a single other god damned soul on the face of the planet!!) want to set Goals for 2015 to get healthier and lose weight, to feel better, to reduce your medicine, to sleep better, to have clearer skin, to be more active, to play with the kids more…whatever your motivation and reasons – GOOD!! GREAT!! WONDERFUL!! FREAKIN FABULOUS!! Go out, research, learn and set a plan in motion that works for you, for your lifestyle, for your budget, for your health concerns for your personal GOALS and get after it!! You can do anything you set your mind to!! Anything is possible!! You are worthy of whatever you can dream up!!
If you are happy with you just as you are, regardless of what society says, then give em the bird and move on. Simple as that!!
I wish you all the love, happiness and prosperity 2015 can bring!!!
With Much Love
❤ Kristy