I KNOW RIGHT!? HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE I BITCHED AND COMPLAINED ABOUT HOW MUCH SOCIETY'S STANDARDS FUCK US ALL INTO AN UNIMAGINABLE HELL HOLE OF SELF-LOATHING AND SHAME!?
Answer is: It's been awhile.
I've been quiet, I've kept my mouth shut (which is odd for me, I know). I've been more concerned with posting updates on my progress as of late simply because that's all I've been able to muster up the energy to do. However, I really can't sit idly by and take this much longer or I think I am going to explode into glitter and rainbows all over the place. Like unicorn vomit. Sorry for giving you that mental image.
I'm really not that sorry.
Anyway.
I've bitched and complained about a lot in my past, especially about the diet industry and how it promotes self-loathing, body-shame, destroys self-esteem and promotes unattainable beauty ideals while claiming it's "changing lives", giving people "their lives back", and swearing that their methods are foolproof and that you will be happy if you participate in the madness that is the dieting and beauty industry. I've just been getting really irritated since Halloween at the number of ads, infographics, memes, email newsletters, and pinterest pins that are doing nothing but promoting a pseudo idea that you can "have your cake/pie/turkey dinner/holiday feast/cupcake/dessert/caloric drink/Halloween treat and eat it too". Here's the catch. These handy little infographics may appear as if they are supporting the "treat yo'self|" mentality, but there is more than meets the eye, and it isn't even subtle! For every morsel you put in your mouth, they pair exactly how much exercise one needs to do in order to "burn" off whatever you've eaten!
It's that simple!! You can rest easy knowing that you can eat your mini snickers bar so long as you run up and down the stairs 40 times! Don't worry! You can have Pumpkin Pie after dinner as long as you make sure you got that 22 minute run in earlier today! I highly doubt anyone wants to look at their dinner plate, dessert, or mid afternoon snack and think "Oooo doesn't this look lovely! A plate of 40 pile squats, 50 minuets of cardio, 50 jumping jacks and 3 sets of 20 mountain climbers!". I'll admit, I've thought this way in the past. I've eaten numbers and not food. Let me tell you, it is not fun. We really shouldn't be made to feel that we as people are "good" or "bad" depending on what we've consumed. How often have you heard a girlfriend say "OMG I was so BAD last night! I had like, two cupcakes!". How often have you seen people preemptively skip meals or attend the gym and hit it harder than they really need to so that they feel they "deserve" whatever indulgences they may or may not be participating in on Friday night.
The diet industry puts food on a pedestal. It makes "fun food" into something that has to be deserved. If you don't deserve it then you are a miserable human being with no self-control who clearly has a death wish to be a fat-ass (because let's just face it, people, fat is a fate worse than death. I'm actually not kidding, there are many people, including almost 80% of girls from 8-10 years old who fear fat more than death, cancer, or losing a loved one)!
What we need to come to realize is that all food fits into our diet, no matter what it is. If you want to eat dessert every day, well do it. You don't need to feel as if you need to do something special in order to "deserve" your Thanksgiving dinner, or a piece of your friend's birthday cake. If you want something, you fucking have it. Everything in moderation. Eat healthy food most of the time, get out and move a little bit. The moment you deprive yourself and make something "off limits" or "bad", the moment it becomes special, something you want, and causes guilt if you allow yourself to have it.
Think of it this way, if everything the diet and beauty industries endorsed was true... like how the latest diet that consists of an 800 calorie meal plan and causes 11 pounds of weight loss a week will make you happy... wouldn't everybody in the world be skinny, successful and happy? You would think so. But you see, skinny isn't necessarily happy, the depictions of "health" you see in the media are more often than not very unhealthy. "Fitspiration" has become the new "thinspiration". It's just another vehicle for self-hate, comparing ourselves to others, and constantly feeling we need to improve ourselves. We have society's unattainable beauty ideals to thank for that.
So, be you, fuck the system, and eat the damn cake.
*sigh* Rant over.
In other news, today marks the 31st day I have not stepped on a scale. Tomorrow marks three months eating intuitively. Let me tell you, even within the past few days my eating adventures have become quite exciting. I'm trying new things, and trying to have something new every day (usually I change up breakfast). I'm gearing up for the holidays (a topic which will more than likely have several blog posts dedicated to it), Anyway, I feel better, so I'm going to stop ranting and raving now.
What are your pet peeves when it comes to beauty ideals/the diet industry?
Man, glad you asked. I am soooo annoyed at all the shit the tabloids gave kim for having baby weight, and how much praise they gave her for losing 80 pounds in a month! It was fucked how they made it seem like Kanye was straying because she gained pounds. what type of a shitty boyfriend would he be? it's weird that other reasons weren't guessed at for their problems, just her gaining weight after having a baby. in this world where kanye hated her cause she was gaining weight, they put all the blame and pressure on her for gaining the weight to begin with and not on kanye for being a dick about it. Then kim loses all of that weight. Like, how totally unhealthy would kim have to be if she had actually exercised and starved off 80 pounds in 2 months.? and then, when everyone figured out she just got a ton of lipo, she got SHAMED for getting surgery and lying about it. we want women to have bodies that require surgery, but we want them to do it magically without surgery. it's so upsetting to me that after stars have babies, the cameras are ON THEM, pressuring them to lose that baby weight. how does that make every pregnant and post partum woman feel? and then stars who are lying about lipo, claiming they lost weight "the healthy way" in an absurdly quick amount of time make regular people feel like stressed out failures. ffffff.
ReplyDeleteCOMPLETELY agree. Why do we even attach emotion to food? We need fat in our diet (the one thing that people refer to as bad). We need it like we need protein, carbs, dairy etc. I think the aim is to eat what you want in moderation - mix it up to make sure your body gets EVERYTHING. That is what being healthy is really, and I'd rather be healthy than skinny and miserable xx
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