This society places a huge emphasis on weight and the societal norm for what should be a perfect weight for certain people. Society has had this on going battle about fat vs. skinny vs. muscular for women in past decades. Luckily, there are new movements promoting health over weight in class. In my opinion, being too thin or too overweight is bad for health. Right now I am overweight and I'm trying to lose weight, but because I’ve been in almost every weight class in my life, but I will be honest that I’ve had health problems at both ends of the spectrum -- being too thin and almost obese at 190 when I was in ninth grade. Down below is a picture of me from ninth grade.
I was almost obese when I was a ninth grader. This time in my life I was deficient in multiple vitamins and I had almost no energy while I had new food allergies to battle. My self esteem was at its lowest and people would treat me poorly. During this time, both boys and girls would be very nasty. I also didn’t have the self esteem or desire to dress well because I didn’t feel good in my skin due to how others made me feel. The sad thing is that this is a crucial age in people's lives and all girls want to feel pretty in high school, so that was a hard thing. Sadly, when I was that overweight for the height that I was at the time, 5’0, there weren't Instagram movements for those being bullied over the societal image of beauty.
After about a year and a half when I was in tenth grade, I was ironically on the too thin side. Sadly, I found that guys wouldn’t pick on you then, but girls were equally catty over you being thin, because high school is a sensitive age. Did I feel my best then? No. I was too thin and had a hard time finding what I could eat at the time. Even with the dramatic weight change, I wasn’t at my healthiest because I still had imbalances with vitamins. I still didn’t get proper nutrients. I remember I was almost as sluggish then. Even though I remembered that guys would make comments when I walked by saying that, “I was actually getting hot,” it taught me a valuable lesson that health matters the most because people will always say something nasty.
Luckily by my junior and senior year of high school I was actually eating all organic and holistic foods, while taking a daily vitamin that tasted terrible, but with that, I put on a healthy amount of weight that didn’t make my cheeks look sunken in. My energy and mindset was at my best, and I didn’t find myself feeling depressed or tired at all. Even if I had my bad days or dealt with cattiness and bullies, I wasn’t too phased because my body felt good when it was at what my bodies norm should’ve been. I won’t give a weight because I don’t know how much I weighed, but number shouldn’t matter because people are built differently and BMI (Body Mass Index) can miss calculate what is healthy for one person vs. another. That was another important thing I realized my junior year.
Sadly after my senior year, getting into my twenties when I grew a couple inches, so did my waist. My waist grew from college and it’s been a yoyo effect so far, because sometimes changing your lifestyle back is hard. The strange irony is that when you’re mildly overweight to overweight, people don’t make as many rude remarks to you. I know that I am not at my healthiest now, especially since I discovered a multitude of food allergies in 2016 like garlic, corn, strawberries, shrimp, lobster, peach, sesame seeds, lemons, pears, tuna, and pork. These allergies contributed to on going bloat that would make me look seven months pregnant if I ate anything with these in it, especially the garlic and corn, because those are in almost everything and ironically can tip the scale and make you lose energy, leaving feelings of sluggishness and dizziness. The good thing is that I’ve realized that all of these things along with taking out sugar when I can will help me get back to being healthy.
The point of my article is that healthy should be the goal. Exercise and try to eat right, like I am trying to do, and your body will fall into place where it should be. I’ve learned that being too thin or too overweight is equally dangerous. I didn’t plan on being in multiple weight classes, but it happened when I’ve had different health issues and food allergies over the years. Right now I am just trying to get back to being healthy and a good middle ground because that’s when I felt my healthiest with the most energy. It doesn’t matter how others treat you when you’re wherever you are health wise, because you have to treat yourself well enough to want to be healthy and know where your body is most comfortable. I know I want to be healthy again, so I’ve started changing my lifestyle. I’ve been told it’s not a diet. It’s all about the lifestyle you choose to commit to.
