"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are" -Marilyn Monroe
To be happy beautiful and desirable you do not first need to be thin. Beauty is so much more than what is portrayed in magazines and in the media. Self confidence and understanding your own self worth is beauty. Our society sets unrealistic ideals and devalues those who do not conform to them. I want anyone reading this blog to know that I do not think we all need to look the same and be the same. That is not how we were created.
The purpose of this blog is to promote healthy eating and physical activity. It in no way advocates dangerously low calorie diets, binge eating, or the same ideal body size for everyone. 168 pounds was heavy for my body type, but for another woman it could be completely normal and healthy. That is why it is important to focus on eating healthy balanced meals and sticking to a regular fitness program. If you are overweight, then yes it is important to work at losing a healthy amount of weight, but this is to be done the right way, not the extreme way. It is important to establish healthy weight goals fit to accomplish healthy body composition. Starving oneself will cause the reduction of lean muscle mass, therefor resulting in a lower basal metabolic rate and if not fixed, enormous amounts of damage done to the body.
I understand what it is like to want to be thin and look like the models in magazines. I understand comparing oneself to others and always thinking someone is more beautiful than you. I get. But that is not what brings happiness. I am happy when I know that what I am doing will help me be healthier today and tomorrow. It is not always easy to stop the nagging voice inside my head telling me that I am not good enough, pretty enough, fit enough, or skinny enough. But that voice doesn't know who I really am. That voice doesn't know my potential, and that voice only looks on outward appearances. There is so much more to beauty than what is see by our eyes.
So it is unrealistic for any of us to try and become someone else. It is impossible in fact. But why would you want to be someone else when you can work at being the best you that you can be? It takes diligence and it takes positivity. I don't always do my best at it, but I am sure going to try!
Anyway, what I am trying to say is, I don't post these exercise routines, recipes, tips, and progress pictures to say that everyone needs to look and be the same. I do it because I want to inspire people to be HEALTHY and FIT. If you are skinny but don't take care of yourself, that is just as bad as being overweight and not taking care of yourself. There are plenty of risk factors associated with being underweight as there are with being overweight. Some are different and some are the same. The goal here is to take care of yourself and to love yourself. So stop judging yourself and others. Set worthy and attainable goals, and reward yourself in a healthy way when you accomplish them. And when you slip up from time to time, don't beat yourself down, pick yourself up and get going again. Ok I will stop preaching now :) but seriously you can do this, the RIGHT way. Keep HEALTH as your focus.
Now for some little things to note:
- Never restrict food intakes to below the amounts suggested for adequacy (if you are unsure what that is, there are resources on the USDA website to help and other resources, including your physician)
- Eat frequently, but not large portions. The person who eats frequently won't get so hungry as to allow hunger to dictate food choices (which is often when we do things we know we shouldn't, like eat a whole box of cookies)
- If you are not at a healthy weight, establish reasonable goals based on a healthy body composition to get there.
- Allow reasonable time to achieve goals. It is said that a reasonable rate for losing excess fat is about 1% of body weight per week. Which generally isn't more than 2 lbs a week.
- Learn to recognize lies in the media, and reject ultra thin and unrealistic and harmful standards for beauty.
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