Why I am sick of "skinny"

"Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels."

Is anyone else as sick of seeing this sentence as I am? I mean, come on. Everyone who has ever been on the internet has seen plenty of articles about body image and the media's obsession with impossible standards of beauty (which, admittedly, is a problem), but come on! Why aren't we complaining about the regular women of pinterest's obsession with pictures of ridiculously skinny women, or phrases like "I don't want beauty sleep. I want skinny sleep!" and "Women don't want a perfect man, they want to eat anything without getting fat!" The media is a problem, but they aren't ever going to stop until all of the regular people do.

Now,  I know that pinterest fitness pictures are mostly real women who haven't been photoshopped, but my problem is that all of the focus is on the image. There are much better reasons to desire to be healthy than "I saw a picture of a hot chick on pinterest and I want abs like that." Especially when a lot of the focus on looks means crazy crash diets that basically starve your system, cleanses that make your body go into starvation mode, and fads like wrapping.

"I am going to saran wrap my entire body to deprive it of essential H2O so that I can lose some water weight, only to have it come back in two days."

Wonderful idea.

The reason I hate this whole skinny obsession, is that it really has nothing to do with health, and only damages many healthy people's body images. Also, SKINNY FAT. Why in the world do we make up these phrases? First, we pressure women to be skinny, and then we tell them that they are still fat, just skinny (I'm still not sure how that one works). What in the world is going on?

I have a slender build. I always have. In fact, when I was younger I was almost embarrassed by how thin I was. But, I shouldn't have been. I was healthy and active. The only reason I was ever uncomfortable was because of the comments I got from other people. I still remember my girl scout leader telling me, (when I was ten!) that I was way too skinny and I need to eat some hamburgers and ice cream or something. Great. Wonderful, healthy advice. Thanks for that. My best friend's dad told me that I was skinnier than her and argued with her about it when she got upset, as if it should be a competition between two healthy eleven year olds to see who is thinner.

I guess my point is that being skinny shouldn't be such a focus. And image should not be the only reason that we motivate ourselves to be healthy. If it is, I can only see body image continuing as a problem and unhealthy obesity rates continuing, because I don't see a whole lot of people gaining the motivation to be healthy based solely on wanting abs.

I think there are better reasons to eat a balanced diet and to exercise. 

But first, I won't pretend that vanity doesn't play into it. I work out because I want to look good and feel good about the way I look. However, if that was the only reason I went to the gym, I probably wouldn't have the motivation to keep going.

I work out because I want to be strong. I am a small, thin woman. I have to go places by myself. I live in a safe place, but that doesn't meant I won't ever be in trouble. Now, I know that no matter how hard I work, a man who works the same amount will be stronger that me. But I also know that if it seems like I can and will fight back, I have a much better chance of defending myself and maybe my future family. I want to feel confident that if my husband isn't around, I can protect myself, and maybe even open a jar by myself.

I work out and eat the way I do because I want my body to be healthy. I want to be able to walk and run and play with kids and do the things I love when I'm sixty, seventy, heck, maybe even eighty or ninety! I know a lot of older people who have had serious health problems that they couldn't have prevented. I also know a ton who have problems that could easily have been prevented if they changed their diets and exercised when they were my age.

I want to build strong muscles that can support my bones so that I am less likely to be injured and that when I am older my spine can still be tall and straight because it has the strength and the support it needs.

I just love the way I feel when I am treating my body well. I love having energy and being able to do the things I need to all of the time. I love never being sick and being able to do crazy stuff like walk to the bottom of the grand canyon and back in ten hours with no training.

I love feeling good about my body because it feels healthy, not because it looks like some picture of a stranger online or because people tell me it is acceptable.

I love knowing that my body can do what it is supposed to and that I have helped make it that way.

I want my sisters and my daughters to grow up in a home, and hopefully a culture, that values health as much as it values beauty. So let's talk about being healthy for it's own sake and give up the skinny pictures of women on pinterest. Let's sleep because it's healthy. Not because it will make us skinny or beautiful. And let's eat foods that taste awesome because we want to be healthy. I think healthy feels better than anything tastes. And chocolate can totally be part of a healthy diet.