Monday, October 20, 2014

Christmas Challenge: Weigh In 5






Where are the weeks going, we are 5 weeks in already and I have no idea how it happened. I have had a couple of bad weigh ins the past few weeks but I never gave up and this week I was down a pound and a half. So we are down to 9 weeks to go and I have 7lbs to reach my goal. Its not going to be easy with the Christmas season getting closer and closer, but I know I can do it. If I start with the excuses now then I will never get there.




Everywhere I look this week there seems to be stuff about body image screaming at me. I didn't actually watch it but there were 12 Irish plus sized models on The Saturday Night Show this week, and I have read a lot of differing reactions to this on various social networks. There has been a lot of negative responses to these women, people coming out and saying that we shouldn't encourage or celebrate what is obviously an unhealthy lifestyle. That we are doing nothing to help combat our obesity crisis by parading people like this as role models. 

On one hand I know that we have an obesity issue and that steps need to be taken to fix this, but from what I can understand, these women aren't putting themselves out there to be celebrated as a picture of health. All they are saying is that their weight does not define them, they are still beautiful and will be beautiful no matter what size they are, and I do think that fair play to them for thinking that. In fact I wish I could have that attitude. I would love to say that health was my number one reason for starting on my weight loss journey, but it was just one of many and vanity played a big part in it. 



What I remember about losing weight was how great it felt to see the scales drop, but how frustrating it was that my body didn't transform over night. My confidence grew over time but with nearly 4 stone to lose there was a lot of time where I still felt awful about how I looked. I fully believe that my weight loss journey would have been easier had I been able to love myself along the way. We judge people so harshly for being overweight, but nobody knows the ins and outs of a persons life. When someone catcalls an overweight person in the street, they do not know that persons history. The person could be halfway through their own weight loss journey, be struggling with a personal tragedy, suffering from depression or any other number of reasons. Who is so perfect that they can pass judgement on others so flippantly? 

How can we expect people to learn how to make healthy life choices when they are made to feel like they should hide away from the world if they do not fit into societies 'ideals'. We do not condemn people as harshly for smoking, binge drinking, eating unhealthily (as long as you are lucky enough to look as certain way) or living an unhealthy lifestyle. We need to be teaching todays children about health, not just when it comes to weight but all walks of life. A healthy mind is just as important as a healthy body and if we put such a premium and what someone looks like what does say about human nature. Bullying is such a huge issue at the moment and I think people need to focus more on accepting people and encouraging people to live a healthy and well rounded life in a positive way instead of taking issue with some larger women feeling beautiful. Beauty is subjective, and everyone has the right to feel beautiful in themselves. 


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