I am sure we all have gone through some struggles of feeling like we have to look a certain way. I don’t know about you but I am more than ready to start accepting who I am and loving the way I look. I am so tired of hearing people say that someone should be skinnier or that someone needs to be thicker either because they are one of them or because they find one of them more attractive.
I do believe getting healthy is important! Yes it may mean you need to gain some weight or lose some weight but it is not because it will make you look a certain way. It is because it will help you live a longer and healthier life with the ones you love.
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Why Beauty Is Not Found In Only One Particular Weight Or Body Shape.
When I was in high school there was so much pressure to be thin. I had some friends that were anorexic and bulimic. It was heartbreaking to me that they couldn’t see that they were beautiful just the way they were and that what they were doing was harmful to their bodies. Even though I did not struggle with an eating disorder almost all of the girls in my school and I struggled with worrying if we looked fat or not.
Then when I graduated high school and moved away I was shocked to find out that being thicker is what a lot of people around me wanted. I couldn’t quite find a way to fit this in my brain when all the way through high school I was under the impression that everyone wanted to be skinny and that anyone who was thicker had let themselves go(so naive). I found out that the men where I had moved actually liked women to be thicker. After I thought that being thicker was better I began struggling and trying to find things that I could do to gain weight in all the right areas without gaining too much in the others. I began to gain weight and started to gain more weight. I then began to start feeling unhealthy(I am not saying that if you are bigger then you are unhealthy. I think you can be big and healthy too). I personally found myself feeling uncomfortable in my own skin and I had less energy to do the things I loved doing.
Now in my thirties I see both of these issues still all around me. I see girls doing drastic things to be skinnier and drastic things to be thicker. I know that these are serious things to go through but it doesn’t have to be like this. If we as a society start focusing more on being healthy and being more confident in ourselves it can make a world of difference.
Why Should We See Beauty In The Body We Already Have?
I have come to see that we tend to try to be skinnier or thicker because we think it will help us find the person we are going to date or marry. You may be trying to change yourself because you think it will get you ahead in life or you may be trying to change yourself because you want to play a certain sport(pressure from the coaches to gain or lose weight). The truth is your weight and body shape will continue to change throughout your entire life. If you have to risk your health for something then it probably is not the best thing for you in the first place. The other truth is that there are people out there that are attracted to one body shape and other people who are attracted to a different type of body shape. There is not a certain shape or weight that you need to be. Besides yourself a doctor is really the only person who can tell you if you are healthy or not(the doctor can let you know if your weight or underweight is the cause of you being healthy or unhealthy).
Try your best to be healthy(get active & eat healthier foods that are good for you) and love yourself for who you are. That includes loving your shape, your hair, your personality, your weight and the size of the jeans you are wearing(it doesn’t mean you can’t have goals it just means be happy with you while you try to attain them in a healthy way). After you find the beauty that is already inside you the right person will come along who is looking for someone just like you and you will not have to try and live up to something that makes you miserable or unhealthy. Love yourself and show love to others. Take care of the body that God has given you!!! To me this is one of the greatest things you can do for yourself.
