Should I be Skinny?

I've been doing some thinking and musing. Pretty typical, except this pondering led to an urge to post. I've been thinking about the desire to be skinny. Now, don't get mad, I'm not saying a desire to be thin is wrong. However, I notice more than a desire in some people. Let's do some thinking and figure out what we should strive for in a diet and what we should look like......roughly. Remember that this is my current thinking, and you can persuade me otherwise. I will try to back all of my work up, though, and do my research carefully. Let's go through this step by step.

What are the reasons for being skinny, and why do people feel pressured?

1) Peer Pressure

There is an eternal pressure, it seems, for people to be thin. Not just thin, super thin. As a population, we push for people to be skinny, even to the point of being unhealthily so. Bullying causes people to fast and literally not eat to gain favor from their friends and even those that they don't know.

I'll be honest, I don't struggle with weight that much due to a high metabolism and a big body. As long as I eat healthily (not nothing, just healthy food), I can easily stay at a healthy weight. I get comments about being "stick thin" all the time (not offended, it doesn't bother me), yet, once or twice I've been bothered by a "small" comment from someone about my age regarding my size. These comments took the form of something like "Have you gained a little around the center?" Innocent remarks, perhaps even sarcastic, yet I took them the wrong way and it bothered me, even though I'm thin. I shouldn't have been bothered by them, but I was. I'm throwing this out there to say that the slightest remark can bother some people. This shows just how strong the pressure is to be thin.

2) Celebrities

When I Google "popular celebrities", a list of about 50 celebrities comes up. A quick look reveals that many of them are physically fit (Dwayne Johnson, Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Jennifer Lawrence, Ryan Reynolds.........), many are really thin (Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Jessica Alba.......), and none of them are "large". As a nation, the U.S. (picking the U.S. because I'm most familiar with it) glorifies it's music stars, TV actors and actresses, and sports champions. Those people give off a collective image of physically fit, thin, and healthy people. The desire to be like one's favorite celebrity drives them to look like them, even to the point of forcing one's body out of it's normal size to be like their star. The pressure, while perhaps not obvious, is real and strong.

3) Advertisements

While you could probably put this under celebrities, advertisements are a huge influence on peoples view of acceptable size. If you walk through the checkout aisle and look at the magazines and images that are portrayed (I personally don't, it only causes me to shake my head) and you will see huge headlines regarding weight and photo-shopped images of people who lost an insane amount of fat and are now super-toned. This is a huge influence on people and their view of normal weight. You also have your television and billboard ads featuring people who are virtually flawless. These people are thin, trim, have perfect teeth, flawless hair, and are the epitome of what we want to be like. All around advertisements are influencing our thoughts and views.

What should I look like as an individual?

This is a hard question, and varies largely from person to person. I'm going to quote the Bible, something that I believe to be a credible source of information. In the NT, Paul was writing to a group of new Christians and encouraged them with this verse. "What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" Here we are encouraged to treat our bodies carefully and with respect because they are essentially God's house. Treating with them respect does not mean starving ourselves. It means we need to care for them and not treat them like garbage. I think we can all agree that we should not treat our bodies poorly.

So, what does treating our bodies correctly look like? I believe that if we are to treat our bodies correctly we need to balance healthy (correct types of foods, not abstaining from eating) eating and physical activity (notice I didn't say the despised e-word).

Healthy eating can be accomplished by balancing how often we eat out, choosing carefully what we buy for our typical meals (boxed dinners vs prepping our own fresh vegetables, fruits, and meats), and not eating excessively or deficiently.

Correct physical activity includes walking, moving around, and not being a couch potato. I'm not going to tell you that you should be able to run an 8-minute mile and bench-press your weight, but, think about what you want to be able to do, and work toward your goal.

Lastly, don't put anyone down for the way that they look. If you wouldn't want to hear something, don't make that remark about someone else!

Have any ideas or suggestions for me? Leave a response or shoot me a message and I'd be happy to discuss it with you!