“Shed 10 lbs. before summer!” “Melt off the pounds fast with this simple trick!” These are titles and commercials we see almost every day. The business of health is now an industry, and the industry is in our faces every moment of the day, promoting, selling, educating and branding. With all of the visual “ideal bodies” and implied pressure to attain the ideal body, it really is no wonder why both women and men have skewed self-esteem.
When I go home for lunch, I’m ravenous. After a hectic morning, I’m ready to eat whatever is available in the kitchen. Is it always healthy? Of course not. It is difficult to prepare a healthy and balanced lunch in forty minutes. Unless I plan my meal the day before, my lunch needs to be quick and filled with energy.
Breakfast and supper are similar stories. I am a girl that is constantly on the go: doing work, doing side-projects, taking care of regular responsibilities, helping family out, etc. My nutrition sometimes takes a back seat so the pressing matters in my life can be in the front with me. This isn’t a terrible thing; it’s just how life is for a people now, including me. There are plenty of health businesses out there willing to make nutrition easier for a price.
In fact, their advertising surrounds us every day; a constant, guilty reminder of what we should be doing.
What does this guilt do? It shames us into avoiding foods we love so we can eat the foods deemed healthy by the experts in the industry. We constantly step on the scale to keep an eye on our weight. When it’s up, our mood is ruined for the day; our minds focused on the one portion of food we ate that wasn’t healthy. When our weight remains the same, we are still sad. No change is just as bad as weight gain. When our weight is down by a few pounds, we celebrate by finally splurging or binging on a favourite meal, only to end up back on the scale, beating ourselves up. Our self-esteem is a roller coaster in this sense, which in turn affects our emotions and confidence. We are a group of people riding an emotional weight wave.
Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we listen to paid experts? Why do we have to give up the foods we love? The very simple answer to all of these questions is that we don’t have to. We don’t have to give up our favourite foods. In fact, we can incorporate foods that we should eat with foods that we love to eat. We don’t have to listen to the “experts.” We already know what we should and should not do. We do not need paid opinions forced down our throats. We don’t have to do this to ourselves, and here’s why: You are not defined by your mass. Your mass is only one physical property of you. Lead does not lose sleep because its weight is not the same as Hydrogen. That would be impossible. Do you immediately think of what lead should weigh when you see it? You know its heavy for sure, but you know it’s strong. You know that when used with force, it can produce deadly results. Apply this same thinking to yourself.
For example, I am 187 lbs. When I look at charts that tell me what I should weigh, I am considered overweight. When I try to buy clothes, I have to often buy large to fit me. However, I am not defined solely by my weight. I am 5’11”, I have size 10 feet and I am of Germanic-Celtic descent. My parents are both tall and large. I have a muscle strengthening routine that I do regularly. I have a lot of fun winning the “Guess My Weight” games at exhibitions because I do not look like what my weight is. This is also partially due to the muscle training, as muscle is denser than fat.
I see girls similar to my height and age who are smaller, but a closer look shows me their petite attributes such as bone size, heritage, muscle mass, etc. Everybody is different; every body is different. This is okay. You are okay.
Stop listening to people who want to sell you something. Once you start listening to yourself, you will begin to realize what your body needs. You will begin to appreciate the centuries of genetics that have gone into making your unique body. It’s not going to happen overnight, but tonight is a good night to start.
