Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year, You're Not Fat.

Happy New Year, now stop thinking that you're fat.

Stop thinking that being beautiful has to do with your lack of muffin tops, or your BMI, or your slightly jiggly thighs.

Stop thinking about your jiggly thighs, everyone's thighs jiggle.

Stop looking at crapola like this:
 or this:
because you are not these people, and because you think they're beautiful you might be setting yourself up for failure. You will never be someone else, you will never look like someone else.

So you will fail if you want your legs that long, your arms that thin, your waist that small, because simple science says you don't have the same DNA. You can't be that. It will be incredibly difficult to ignore what your mother, teacher, boyfriends, waiter, billboard and Groupon advertisements are trying to sell to you. But just the same, be aware that deprivation is not becoming of anyone.

Please, stop talking about your diet.


I don't want to tell you how to eat. I'd love to tell you how I love to eat, I'll tell you all day. What I don't want to tell you is about how I stopped eating food altogether until I needed to tell a doctor about it. I also don't want to tell you about all the meals I spent imagining each inch of food I wasn't eating traveling through my body and creating huge fat bulges. And I certainly don't want to divulge how difficult it was to force feed my organs to bloom to a normal size again.

When you talk about your diet, I feel extremely uncomfortable, about as uncomfortable as you would feel if I told you about the day I found out my bras stopped fitting and I cried. It's bad enough we can't make it through a commercial break without hearing "less calories" or "slimming." It makes me happy that you're happy, but it would be good practice to stop sharing the details of how small your portions are at every meal. Can't we just talk about how tasty it is?

Happy New Year, let's just talk about how tasty it is!


11 comments:

  1. Caitlin, your posting reminded me of last year, when we were talking about the same topic in my 8th grade English class. We briefly talked about how our generation now is so caught up in what the media and society should expect us to be. They think we should dress this way, where this brand, etc. The media tells you that you should be this amount of pounds, look like this way, etc. But in reality, beauty is beauty.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Caitlin, I strongly agree about your post on how people think that they are fat. I believe that you don't need to be super skinny to wear a swim suit in the summer time. If you are hungry, then EAT. No one is stopping you from eating. People will love you just the way you are. Don't change yourself to impress people, if your friends don't accept you for who you are make new ones.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Caitlin. Your brief story on your problematic diet and appetite made me remind me of my own. And as much as I hate to talk about it, let alone think about it, I feel like sharing it well probably give anyone who reads this a different perspective on weight problems. So America is THE biggest leading country in the world right? Yeah well the percentage of obesity does not include me, for sure. I'm underweight and most likely malnourished and have been insecure for throughout my childhood, and even up to now, although the battle against these insecurities proves that I'm winning, and living. Most people, basically almost everyone, especially girls, are insecure about their weight because of their ladylike expectations that they feel as if they're obligated to meet. They probably weigh 90 lbs. but are still unsatisfied with their weight, even if that's already past moderate weight. But because of society's expectations and social media with commercials that only include slim, white, beautiful women with the perfect clothes and beautiful smile, girls try to see themselves as those women through their own mirror, and continuously dispel a portion of their own body. I never felt like that, mostly the exact opposite. My appetite has a mind of its own, hungry between meals, full in the beginning of meals. I can never eat most of the food that's on my plate and end up having to throw that away, with the reoccurring yelling of my parents to eat more and eat more when each extra spoonful makes me want to gag. It's hard, and I can probably go on and on and on about this challenge that I've been facing for most of my life, but I just wanted to share this problematic experience like you have. Society has created a specific expectation that can allow one to attain social beauty and perfection among the eyes of others, others that you have never even met. Everyone, every single person in the world has their own idea of beauty, which is why love comes into play as well. Just because society has their own views of true beauty, doesn't mean that you shouldn't have your own. I mean, we're only human you know? Perfection is overrated anyways.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Caitlin, I totally agree with you, Now these days, girls or even boys are insecure how they look like or whine about how much food they ate in the holidays. We should love our self. Building on Matthew's statement that our generation now is so caught up in what the media and society expect us to be, also who they look up to. They want to be that person who they adore. We should not act different because of the media. Stay true to who you are because that's beauty.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I strongly agree with you 100% Caitlin because we shouldn't care about what people think about how we look. I am 4'10 and I weight about 94 lbs. I honestly think I am way too skinny. That is what my family and friends think also, they would say " you need to gain weight" "you need some meat in you" or "your way too skinny". For the past 2 years I have been trying to gain a lot of weight, my meals would get heavier and I would tend to eat more snacks. I asked my doctor how come I am not gaining and he said that I have a fast metabolism. He also said that I shouldn't be eating too much and start eating regularly. So, I listened to my doctor and did that. I don't get why so many people would get so caught up on what other people say when it does not even matter. Everyone is beautiful just the way they are and no one should have to change how they look. Society is society and they will do anything to hurt you. But, it shouldn't have to be this way. Everyone is beautiful and should accept how they look.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you, thank you for bringing up this topic. I have been telling friends and classmates who are insecure about them selves to not listen to social marketing and those magazines because everyone is unique and if we all try to be like Victoria secret models and Abercrombie and Fitch models we are no longer unique and it is all about being unique and beautiful in our own ways. Just be you and only you.

    ReplyDelete
  7. i truly agree i personally believe that people shall be more secure with themselves. they should try at least telling themselves that if they don't like today there's always a second chance called tommorow

    ReplyDelete
  8. I agree with you Caitlin. I also think that you shouldn't care about what other people think. I have the same problem but with my sister and society. My sister thinks that she’s fat because of what other people say about her. Society nowadays, have people telling you how you should look or what you should eat, and it just gets on my nerves that people would make fun of a girl who is so kindhearted to everyone. I just wish that society would stop saying that you should be skinny and strong like the models they show in magazines because everyone who feels like they should be skinny should only be themselves and nobody else.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Caitlin, I think what you said is amazing and inspiring to everyone. A lot of girls these days are so insecure about their looks and body because of haters. I know that I'm not the prettiest, smartest and fitted perfect girl out there but I know that I have something that makes me stand out from others and that's what keeps me strong. I believe every girl should find that inner feeling in themselves and accept that they're not what society thinks they are. I love to say, "Just do you" to my friends that tell me about their problems because it helps them think about the situation from a different angle and understand what's happening.

    ReplyDelete
  10. A lot of my friends have been "dieting" and "just not hungry" most of the time and it makes me feel really uncomfortable. I feel like since they're trying to loose weight I should too. But maybe I don't want to! Maybe I should just spend a day in my pajamas eating grilled cheese sandwiches and listen to the rain hit my window while watching reruns of Full House and Pretty Liars (why not throw High School Musical in there too) because that's what makes ME happy. It's hard to remember sometimes that my friends lifestyles aren't mine, and that we all have different views of ourselves and we need to please ourselves before we worry about pleasing others.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Caitlin, I totally agree with you. Nowadays, people can't even go in a day without feeling insecure about themselves. I think that the media has a huge portion of why people, mostly teenagers, feel this way. Media make people believe in an illusion that there are picked people that are meant to be perfect. What some people don't know is, the media cake people's faces with make-up and if that isn't enough, they also Photoshop what they don't think is the right size or look for them. People aspire to be the person that they see on TV or some magazine cover, and tries really hard to change the person that they are. I honestly think that if you stop comparing yourself to other people, you'll have a happier life. Stop comparing and just always be your own, unique person. :)

    ReplyDelete