I found myself feeling inspired by some before and after
pictures on Instagram the other day. They weren’t the usual before and after
pictures you see of someone’s weight loss/fitness journey, though. They were
pictures of women, whose “before” was them at their thinnest, in the grips of
an eating disorder, and whose after was them showing off their more healthy
figures.
These women’s bodies came in many different shapes, but many
of them made a point of showing how they prefer to be photographed devil may
care, with a belly roll here, an imperfect angle there, and showing also how
easy it is to photoshop and/or suck in and angle the same shot and have a
completely different, more traditionally Instagram “inspo” type picture. Many of these pictures shared their story,
and were incredibly open and difficult to read in some cases.
The mere act of looking at women with eating disorders can
be/was historically triggering for me. “Thinspo” did not exist when I was a
teenager/young woman, and I am so, so thankful for that. Many times I have seen these types of
stories in magazines and newspapers, but they tend to focus on the gory details
and almost glorify the horror show of someone being near death’s door that dare
I say it, glamorizes it.
They rarely manage to capture the human effort and willpower it takes to break free from it, the story is mostly about the “wow factor” of the before and after. They always made me uncomfortable and I felt it was maybe weird that I didn’t relate much to them. It further cemented my idea that I had never had a “real” eating disorder because I had never been hospitalized.
They rarely manage to capture the human effort and willpower it takes to break free from it, the story is mostly about the “wow factor” of the before and after. They always made me uncomfortable and I felt it was maybe weird that I didn’t relate much to them. It further cemented my idea that I had never had a “real” eating disorder because I had never been hospitalized.
And while the Instagram posts that made their way into my
feed for being the most liked were in most cases also extreme cases, they made
me feel differently. They made me feel ok about my body for the first time in a
while if I’m honest. I had reached a point last year when I was exercising
regularly that I felt pretty good, despite the fact I wasn’t losing weight. I
do believe exercise endorphins make you feel better, regardless of how you feel
about the act of exercise itself (I
wrote a post about how dancing in particular makes me feel good here).
But here’s where I differ from the masses, or so it feels
sometimes. I have to work at it. If I
don’t, if I let that feeling of self -love and non-self- judgement slip, I open
myself back up to feeling deeply unhappy/self-loathing pretty quick. That’s
life as someone who used to starve, binge and purge, for years, as a means of
weight control.
It means I can’t look to most sources of fitness/wellness
inspiration, be they “clean eating”, “Positivity” or most other fitness girl
gang hashtags. I am not disparaging that they may help other women, but I am
realizing more and more that they harm my psyche because of my history. "Right" and "Wrong" when it comes to food and fitness trigger unhealthy thoughts in me pretty damn quick.
Pictures of other people eating nothing but healthy stuff
makes me feel inadequate. And
truthfully, aside from the positive crowd, we are still surrounded by an awful
lot of “acceptable” self- bashing, fat shaming from women around us. The
unhappy when fat happy after now thin brigade. I know, for me, that my size
does not dictate my happiness. I have been thin, oh so thin, so thin I can’t
imagine now, and do I remember happiness? No. I remember wishing my size six
shorts were a little baggier because my ass still looked fat in them.
Pictures of women at the gym makes me feel lazy, at least
the majority of the way these things are presented and described. I belong to a
Facebook health/weight loss group that is just friends and friends of friends
being generally supportive/non judgey, but when someone on there tells me that
I too can succeed like they have and in the next sentence says that “Vegetables
are a carb” I die a little inside. I am done with diets. I swear on all that’s
holy.
Diets don’t work for me. And I’m sorry, but clean eating is a diet. Any
food plan that excludes large sections of perfectly healthy foods is a diet.
And seeing/hearing people sing its praises just frustrates me, because I know
people with eating disordered pasts can latch onto stuff like this and tell
themselves they are being “healthy” when all they are is orthorexic. It doesn’t
mean I’m not going to try to eat more salads and less delicious junk, I am
trying, day by day, to do a little better. But I am sticking to my size 16
(U.K.…not that it matters) guns and doing it my way.
I was weighed at an asthma review last month and it really
depressed me for a bit. And it pissed me off because I purposefully don’t weigh
myself anymore for this exact reason. And
hearing the nurse say I’d packed on a few, well, yeah, that’s never good for
me.
I felt like I really tried, for a good portion of this (last)
year, to be my best, healthiest self, without putting unhealthy pressures on
myself. But it wasn’t enough to stop the scales creeping up the minute I
stopped working out. I have a demon inside me that tells me I’m not good enough
every time I look in the mirror on a bad day/see an unflattering picture/try on
jeans that seem like half a million years away. That only takes a few throwaway casual
words from one person to make me feel like I will never be good enough. In my head, I fight enough battles that I no
longer wish to hear input from anyone about my body or what I should be doing
differently.
Anyway, I feel I am coming out of that cycle now. I started
Pilates again last night after a few months off, and it felt good to see some
familiar faces, to dust off my mat (it was literally dusty lol!) and just
concentrate on my body and moving it and feeling all of the pains and releases and sensations that movement brings. It felt
natural, and like something I am supposed to be doing, in a good way.
My Monday
Motivation series last year did help me to get back into an exercise routine, I
do hope to do so again in the coming weeks, because I like how I feel, inside,
when I am moving more. It makes me focus less on the external flaws, and care
less/compare myself less to a lifestyle or size I feel I will never attain. It
makes me feel almost…self accepting. And maybe I will remember that the next
time a scale tries to tell me otherwise.
Wonderful post, Steff! I started it with dread ("Uh-oh, yet another diet and fitness goals post. Bloody January...") but it's so honest and makes such sense.
ReplyDeleteThanks! :-)I was really trying not to do a fitness post because "bloody January" too ;-) But hopefully sharing this will resonate with people like me who feel a bit left out/uninspired by the majority of health related content. xo
DeleteThats such a nice post Steffany. I used to follow Kayla Itsines on Instagram and all she would be posting was pictures of women being the classic before/after that is fat->thin/fit and it dragged me down because let's face it, I do not have the time to get my ass that fit. So, finding pictures with women who used to be thin but then loved their bodies and turned out to eat properly and become healthy that's exciting and a nice example for women to follow!
ReplyDeleteI hope 2017 will be an exciting and healthy year for you! Looking forward to your future posts xx
Thanks Anastasia! I know (I guess?) it motivates some women to see those before and afters, it just does nothing for me. The "reverse" before and afters just made me feel so inspired by comaprison :-) xx
DeleteThis post IS FANTASTIC! I honestly don't even have enough words to tell you how much I love it. 1000%. You are such a beautiful writer & person.
ReplyDeleteDang thanks! (blushing!)
DeleteDamn right Steff. I have been there with the yoyo dieting and self hatred. My new doctor said I have to have a health MOT and I swear I am going to go apeshit if they tell me I have to lose weight. Because mental wellbeing is more important.
ReplyDeleteDoctors telling us we are chubby is just inhumane, Like we don't know/haven't tried a million things already...grr! xx
DeleteI don't like the term "clean eating" because food isn't a moral choice? Food isn't dirty. Well, it can be literally dirty. And I guess ethically "dirty" like the palm tree oil thing... I don't know where I'm going with this.
ReplyDeleteI will say I feel awkward and like I can't comment on these types of posts because of my body size...
I'm glad you are figuring out what works for you! My husband is trying to figure out his thing, but since we are both huge couch potatoes I'm not really the best motivator.
Yes totally, you put into words what I couldn't. "Clean eating" is just so very smug ang superior. And when they put palm oil on the consumer, it drives me nuts, the FDA/whoever else runs that stuff in each country needs to stop food manufactureres using it, it is not our freaking fault and is damn near impossible to avoid completely. I hope I don't ever come across as not wanting to hear viewpoints about this stuff from anyone regardless of body shape, I totally do.
DeleteI know what it's like to feel excluded from a conversation, be it the "pro healthy" types OR the "if you even talk about wanting to lose weight you are a self hating not cool anti-fattist" types. There is such a weird divide happening I think with that situation too. I feel stuck in the middle. I want to be open and honest about how most "fitspo" doesn't work for me, but I also would like it to be ok to talk about trying to be healthier if I want to. It feels sort of black and white sometimes: like you either have to be self loathing/striving to be the thin green juice girl OR shunning seeking a healthier lifestyle altogether...if that makes any sense... ;-0
1000% what you said. I am so writing a blog post about this subject. (Which I already was going to do, but you inspire me.)
DeleteHeather - man, you always have the right to comment on these types of posts - you have a body, therefore, you have the right.
DeleteYES Do itttt!😊
Delete