Picture a healthy woman. What do you see? Do you picture someone you saw in a magazine ad, do you picture a celebrity who gets constant praise for their body, or do you think of a friend who watches what she eats, exercises a lot and wouldn’t be caught dead with a cookie? Chances are you saw at least one of these three images, or at least something pretty close. Unfortunately many college students equate skinny with beautiful.
Ok, so we think of thin woman as being healthy. Yes, thin women are often healthy; they exercise regularly, they eat a balanced diet, and they don’t have the dreadful muffin top that most girls equate to the apocalypse. But, have you ever considered the idea that a healthy body means having some natural curves and not being a Popsicle stick? Have you ever considered the idea that it’s possible to be too healthy?
People struggle to accept the idea that we all have a natural weight range, and that this natural weight is not only close to impossible to change, but in most cases is significantly heavier than the skin and bones you see in fitness ads and the media. Your genes want you to be within a certain range, so the earlier you begin to turn against the harsh messages that the dieting and fitness industry force down your throat to lose weight, the quicker you’re going to learn how to accept your body and define what being healthy is for you.
Now the next idea: when people say they are “getting healthy”, 99.9% of the time they mean losing weight, and losing weight means not only dieting but also feeling guilty when you’re “bad” and cave into the delicious Refectory brownie (do it, it’s worth it). Let me tell you this now, any strict diet that requires drastically deviating from normal eating habits and eliminating over half the foods you love is most likely not healthy. If you can’t get what you need on campus, and find yourself having to go on a weekly shopping spree at Whole Foods, then it’s definitely not healthy. Healthy eating isn’t rigid. It doesn’t mean counting calories and cutting your meals in half. It means being conscious of what you eat, eating good balanced meals, and letting yourself occasionally indulge. There is nothing healthy about food guilt and definitely nothing healthy about disordered eating habits.
So what I am telling you is this: eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly. If you are eating McDonalds and french fries everyday, you might want to rethink that. If you find yourself chugging disgusting drinks and choking down food you hate, you might want to rethink that “drop-10 diet” too. Go eat a brownie and stop trying to figure out how many calories are in it and how you are going to “burn it off” in Wilson after you’re done.
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Photo source: http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/06/09/dove1_wideweb__470x367,0.jpg