I have struggled with my weight for my entire life. Even when I preformed vigorous exercise every single day and was very careful about what I ate, maintaining a healthy weight has always been unobtainable to me. While my sister could eat all of the food in the house in under an hour and still weigh the same, it felt like even thinking about food made my gain ten pounds. People in my life would often make comments about my weight and insinuate that I wasn't trying my hardest to get healthier, my friends would even make jokes about my weight.
Because of this, I struggled severely with positive body image. Whenever the red needle on the scale moved even a centimeter more than I wanted to, I would burst into tears and lock myself in my room. I refused to go clothes shopping with my sister or my friends because I was ashamed of the fact that I often didn't fit into the clothes labelled XL.
Recently, I decided that enough was enough and I was going to work on being my healthiest self no matter how difficult the journey. I even set myself a goal to complete a Spartan Race before I graduate college as a way to measure my progress. That gives me three years to train for and complete an event designed to test your speed, strength, endurance, and determination to succeed.
My friends and family have been nothing but supportive, some even demanding that I update them on my progress. Because of this, I often share these updates on my Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook accounts. While most people are really encouraging, even offering to join me when I workout or make healthy foods whenever we get together for dinner, I've had some of those people; the ones who feel the need to make unnecessary rude comments as though their opinion is the one thing in the world I cannot live without.
They make comments about how I'm only posting on social media for attention, or that I wouldn't be trying as hard as I am if people didn't care about my weight loss, or even that I'm faking my journey. At first, these comments really upset me, and then they made me extremely angry. Now, all I feel is pity for those who feel the need to be so mean.
Here's the thing: if you are working hard to live a healthier life, whether that be by losing weight or recovering from an eating disorder or trying to clean up the way you eat, you deserve to feel proud of yourself. It is hard to lose weight, and it is even more difficult to do so when there are negative voices coming at you when there should be nothing but positive ones.
Whenever someone feels the need to make those kinds of remarks, it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with their need to feel better than. Better than you, better than those supporting you, better than anyone, really. It is wrong, but unfortunately there is nothing you can do to stop people like that aside from unfriending or blocking them on your social media accounts.
To those who are on this journey to become the healthiest version of themselves like I am, I give you my kudos. It is a difficult journey to start and even more difficult to follow through with. Just know that you are not alone, there is a whole community of friends, family, and even strangers that are just waiting to watch you succeed. So you go ahead and post about your progress, your little victories, and your major milestones. The haters will hate no matter what: whether you regularly share updates, make a few announcements when you hit those milestones, keep it private, or even if you didn't embark on this journey at all.
When someone says to keep it to yourself or accuses you of only doing it for attention, they are trying to keep you from succeeding, whether it be because they feel threatened by it, jealous, or just plain don't like it. But the world is so full of negatives, there is no reason for anyone to put more into it.
In fact, sharing your progress is counteracting all the negatives by sharing some positives. Not only do you get to show off all your hard work, but others who see it may be inspired to start on their own journey to being healthier. That is something that there isn't enough of nowadays, and I welcome as much of it as I can with open arms.
Anyone who actively spends their time perpetuating negativity isn't someone that you need in your life, even if it's a close friend or family member. I personally have had to cut out people that at one point I couldn't imagine my life without, and though it was hard I have absolutely zero regrets about doing so. They can keep their negativity, there's no room for that in my macros.
