One of the hardest pills for me to swallow lately has been that my body is still changing and growing as I get older. Most people regard puberty as a huge physical change for them and while I definitely had major changes as an adolescent, I was more than happy to go through it. However, my body has also changed a lot as I went through college. During my freshman year, I weighed more or less the same as I did in high school. Now as a senior, I have noticed a significant difference in the way my body looks and is shaped. Not to mention the numbers on the scale have increased quite a bit as well.
That realization has caused a lot of body image issues and I found myself wanting to look exactly how I did in high school. As a track runner, I am active 6 days a week and have been since I was 7 years old. I even eat healthier now than I did when I was in high school so I could not understand why my body has changed so much. I tried to diet and stop myself from eating the foods I love so that I could be my high school self again. Most importantly, I wasn’t happy.
After a huge awakening, I came to the realization that of course, my body doesn’t look the way it did when I was a teenager because I’m not a teenager anymore! I have learned to appreciate and embrace every change that comes along with womanhood. It is natural to develop curves and for your overall frame to get bigger as well. It was unrealistic for me to expect at the age of 21 I would look the same as I did when I was 14, practically a child. And at the end of the day, I am still very young and this is just the beginning.
Something that helped me a lot was realizing I wasn’t alone in this as a few of my friends were noticing a lot of changes within themselves too. Additionally, I stopped comparing myself to Instagram models and unrealistic beauty standards. The stress of dieting has been lifted and I feel so much better and healthier in my skin.