Similar to many other women, I have struggled to accept my body since I was a little girl. I am one of the few fortunate ones who luckily didn't have to battle with an eating disorder. I am, however, still at war with my body to this day. I am guilty of comparing myself to the "ideal body" found in popular media, as many of us are. Lately, I've been pretty vocal about my body image since there aren't as many distractions around me to focus my attention on at a time like this. The hardest thing for me to hear when I voice my frustrations is that I need to simply exercise more and eat a healthier diet. If it were that simple, everyone would look like Kylie Jenner.
I am 5' 2" and I am 150 pounds. At first, the thought of sharing this information publically made me sick, but I realized it's important to be used as a valuable example. I normally wear size large and my pant size is 29/10. I do NOT wear bikinis. I am not overweight, but I'm not thin. I'm fluffy if you will. What many people don't know is that I live an extremely healthy lifestyle. To most people, my body does not reflect the way I live.
My daily routine is this: I wake up early to run three miles around the neighborhood. I come home, shower, and go to work. I don't eat anything until 1 pm because I intermittently fast. When I do eat lunch, it is usually something along the lines of carrots and a cutie. Today is was bell peppers and a granola bar; Roughly 200-300 calories in total. I work, then I go home. I do an hour of intense Pilates guided by a video. I shower again. Then I eat dinner which is usually only about 900 calories. I only allow myself to consume 1200 calories a day as opposed to the normal 2000 calories a day because if I eat more than 1200, I gain weight. Dinner is usually along the lines of a salad/soup or chicken and a veggie. I do this routine 5 to 6 days a week. I give myself one day a week to eat a "cheat meal".
All day long I am calculating calories and exercise. My mind is never quiet. I feel like I am constantly bargaining with my body all to be considered almost plus size. I could, of course, do more. More exercise, less food consumption, but it isn't fair that some size zero women are able to do NOTHING and still look better than me. Body types are absolutely real and they absolutely suck. My body doesn't look like I even walk a mile a day let alone run three. My metabolism is slow and I carry weight in places that most people don't normally desire. I am doing what I can to create a healthy life without allowing numbers and measurements to completely consume me. It's a tricky task, and I balance on a thin line most of the time.
Exercise and diet are not a simple recipe to create an apparently fit woman. I'm in better shape than half the people my age, but you'd never know by looking at me. I'm not saying diet and exercise don't help a person be fit. I am saying that the two variables don't always carry the same result for every person. Of course, if a person is obese and their weight begins to affect their health, then that is not a body type, that is a disorder.
I encourage everyone to take into consideration the fact that not everyone can look like Kylie Jenner. In fact, very few people actually can without physically altering themselves through plastic surgery. Beauty standards are extremely odd these days. Today, men generally find women with large breasts, a large butt, and super small waste to be the most attractive. That seems so unattainable! It usually takes a gift of heredity or a gift of a good plastic surgeon to be able to create such an outrageous hourglass shape. It is physically impossible for me to achieve such a figure, as it is for most women, no matter how many miles I run or how many vegetables I eat.
At the end of all this, the moral of the story is that everyone needs to keep in mind that body types exist. If you are a woman or man who works their ass off and still doesn't look like – insert popular celebrity here – I want you to know I understand your struggle. People need to start accepting other body types as beautiful. You're asking us poor genetically challenged people to do the impossible. Next time I complain about my body, don't tell me to exercise and eat healthier, because I already did it… and I did it better than you.
