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☾ ☆ UK Glossybox Review | March 2015☆☽

Body Image, My Story

Body image is something that is heavily scrutinized by the media and it's consumers. It is apparent that we now have such a warped idea of what healthy really is. One thing that bothers me a great deal is skinny shaming. It seems to be far more acceptable to make a person feel bad because they are thin, alternatively women are more likely to defend each other if they are overweight. Don't get me wrong i'm not promoting weight loss at all but i'm saying both are equally dangerous when taken to the extreme. The thing that bothers me is that the people or celebrities that so often grace the covers of those magazines are rarely near these extremes. It is important to understand that people have different natural body shapes and types, these change through age and circumstances but health can't always be depicted by how someone looks.

I don't often talk about serious matters in the world but body image is something that hits home for me. When i was in my late teens i developed an eating disorder, it wasn't something i consciously did, i wasn't trying to loose any weight and i never thought i was fat or ugly, it just sort of happened. I was busy with two jobs and college which left me very little time at all to eat food. My weekly diet literally consisted of cheese sandwiches and noodles, nothing else, no fruit and nothing nutritious. I went from a size 12 to a size 8 i was 5'6" and weighed 8st, it may not sound drastically thin but i was pushing my usually muscular frame to its limits. Even when i had time for food i just didn't want it, i developed feelings of anger towards food. I didn't want to cook it and i would only want to eat very specific things. During the summer of 2009 i blacked out whilst walking to work, i was lucky that there were people around to help me. I remember being slumped against a wall with people around me, i couldn't hear anything and everything looked hazy. It was a terrifying experience and one which happened several more times until i realised i had to change my relationship with food. Although my weight loss was constantly pointed out to me by my family, boyfriend and friends it never seemed obvious to me. Now when i look back at old pictures the difference still surprises me, i had and still have very large breasts, i didn't feel underweight because i still had fat on my body. I felt constantly weak and dizzy and very rarely felt happy, it was like living in a constantly dazed state. I rediscovered my love for cookery and my recovery took off from there, planning meals ahead so i would have time to prepare healthy food full of nutrients. My weight soon came back along with my bottom (my mum always pointed out i had no bottom anymore) and plenty of energy. I haven't had a blackout since and while i'm back to my slightly overweight (for my build) size 12  i am happy in the knowledge i am now eating more healthily than i ever have. It feels strange to write this for people who i have never met before but i hope it gives you a different perspective on health and body image. It's not the image you see before you, it's more the feelings that you are experiencing, if you are healthy things just feel right. Having a good balance of diet and exercise really is key, i go to an indoor climbing centre because it is a workout that i enjoy. Finding fun ways to improve your strength and fitness are important if you want to change your body and mind for the better. I wanted to share my story because i understand that in a past post about body image i expressed some strong opinions without explaining why i feel this way. I just hope that my post can impact some of you. Weather it encourages you to be more positive about your body or inspires you to exercise or even if it changes the way you look at body image. Thank you all for reading =^_^=