Size And Personal Happiness
When it comes to your health and personal happiness, it is most important to be happy with the way you look. Of course, you should exercise and eat healthy to remain within the recommended weight range for your body type, but do not spend your life striving for an unattainable goal.
Going on fad diets might be a way to lose weight for the short term, but long term weight maintenance will require adequate calories and exercise to keep your body working like a finely tuned engine. Starving yourself to fit into a special outfit is absurd, especially when you could just buy a new outfit to fit the body you already have. Would you squeeze your dog into a tight little costume? Of course not, so why torture yourself? I understand the desire to want to be a certain size or number on the scale, but it is not worth doing something unhealthy to attain that goal.
It took me awhile to understand this, but striving to look like a magazine cover model is just not realistic. I lost over thirty pounds several years ago, and I used to wear size sixteen and eighteens. Even before I lost weight I was walking about ten miles per week, but in order to drop down to 140 again, I had to double it to walking almost six miles a day. You know I got told by some opinionated guy on the Internet I was ugly because he thought I was fat a couple of years ago when I wrote a hub about how being curvy is sexy, but I really did think I looked okay back then, too. I wanted to lose weight for my health, and not because of naysayers trolling the net for kicks.
Last year I started eating a primarily vegan diet, and I have got down to around 118 or so. This is a good and happy weight for me now, but I would never tell anyone else they need to be this weight. This is around the weight I was in college, so I was happy to be slim again but healthier due to riding a bike and eating a vegan diet. I realized not eating meat and taking most dairy and bread out of my diet helped me lose the weight I had wanted to lose for awhile, but this is not necessary for everyone. I do not like the idea of animals dying for my meal at this time in my life, so eating a primarily vegan diet has worked for me. The added surprise is I finally lost weight, but I would never tell anyone else they need to eat this way. I am just happy I came to this conclusion for me. I am doing what works best for me, as you should do what works best for you,
Now I bike quite a bit, changed my diet, and stopped drinking soda, which resulted in healthy weight loss. I did not follow some fad diet, and I think those are very unhelpful. Even when I was large by societal standards, I knew I was beautiful to myself, and did not settle for those who said I "just look okay". By sharing what I think about my body it is not my looking for validation, but telling society to get over their ideas of how people are supposed to look.
There is some unwritten rule that we are never supposed to mention our weight or clothing size, unless we are modelesque and wear a size 0. Forget that! I am not saying people should be obsessive, but if anyone tells you that you are large and out of shape, they do not know you or your body. If you are working out and eating healthy, then just try to ignore the critics who are not all that helpful anyway.
Realize people come in all shapes and sizes when they are active and eat healthy, and do not feel the need to validate what anyone thinks you should look. Toss aside the harsh critics, and simply walk away when people make spiteful comments. Walking burns calories, and leaves trolls in the dust to wallow in their spiteful commentary. Be happy with you, and give up the fad diets already. Talk to a nutritionist, or buy a sound book on nutrition instead.
