Every girl dreams about having a nice toned body, with a nice butt and amazing abs. We look up to Victoria's Secret models, and famous people and dream to have their bodies, and use them as motivation to get to a certain goal. We begin to work out intensely and go on crazy military-inspired diets to have a dream body. When I was 14 years old, I was a pretty heavy teenager who didn't care about my health because I thought, "I'm still young, there is plenty of time for me to lose weight." It didn't matter, I never really cared about it, until one day, two boys who were in my class called me fat.
Being insulted hurts, especially for most girls because we all have our own insecurities and being overweight was secretly one of mine. I wasn't interested in those boys, or liked them anyways, but just hearing it was a slap in the face. So for the rest of the school year I focused on losing weight, exercising twice a day, starving myself by going on liquid diets, or only eating once a day. For two years I watched what I ate, counted my calories, stayed away from anything that did not grow from the ground or from trees. Sometimes it wasn't enough, I would still jiggle when I run or jump so eventually I ended up being mildly anorexic. I never ate when I was alone, but when I was around other people i would, but always something small like a granola bar, or a salad.
Everything was working out with for me, I had the body I wanted, I felt pretty, I was able to fit in with my other friends and wasn't considered the fat girl in the group. Everything has a catch, and the catch was my health. My body was built to be thick, and curvy, not slim and slender. I wasn't getting enough nutrients my body needed and my immune system weakened. I was exposed to mono and it almost killed me. My body was so weak it couldn't fight the disease. Thank God and the doctors nothing happened, but that was a wake up call for me, that I had to stop the "healthy" lifestyle I thought I was living.
Once I got better, my doctor told me to gain weight, which were scary words, but he had given me advise to start off small and eventually build up and I'll be able to eat whatever I wanted in a few weeks. So I did, after a few months, I was back at eating burgers, pizza, Chinese food and it felt so good. I questioned myself, asking why I tortured myself for two years. I wanted to still stay fit and exercise but I didn't want to cut out the good stuff. I found a way to do that, is to exercise at least three times a week, never eat anything heavy at night, eat a yummy lunch that will fill you up, and breakfast the most important meal of the day. Some people think that for breakfast you have to have a full buffet style meal, but it doesn't need to be that way - a simple yogurt with fruit works fine!
No one is perfect. I'm not perfect, the Rock isn't perfect, Jennifer Lawrence isn't perfect, nor is Jen Selter. We might see them as idols and use them as motivation for our goals, but they have cheat days, make mistakes, and probably have the same struggles and insecurities as we do. Never be afraid to eat a burger and fries because you wont gain 10 pounds once you're done. Just because you eat one bad meal doesn't mean you have to feel bad about yourself, and eating one good meal wont improve anything either. It;s called having a balance, plus who can say no to something delicious such as pizza. Go ahead and have a slice right now and enjoy yourself and the body god intended you to have!
