To all the middle people out there.
The ones that receive comments like, if you just put enough effort in, you can have a good body. The ones that don’t shop in the overweight section but have to try on more than one dress to find out what fits their form.
I am you. You are me. And I have a question.
Our thoughts about our bodies can go either way. Some days I say, this is it. I am going to decide to become thinner. I am going to do sports to tighten my flappy arms. I’m going to get a flatter stomach while doing squats so I don’t lose my butt.
Other times I think, this is a good size for my height. I don’t have to work that much. I don’t have to work at all. I am good the way I am.
I am normal.
I used to think that TikTok and the influencers I see online, that’s not real. I don’t have to adhere to that, because these people’s bodies are their job. The reason they can advertise and sell their products is because they are attractive. The current standard for attraction is healthy skinny. The kind of skinny you don’t starve yourself for, but the kind you achieve after working out in the gym and eating a salad every day.
I used to think it wasn’t realistic. And then I started work at a big company. 160 people we are. Do you know how many I would classify as overweight? Maybe 20. Not even.
These people have perfect bodies. Skinny bodies. Fit bodies. They have a full-time job, they have a social life, a relationship and they have perfect bodies. I mean, these kinds of people really do exist. It’s not even just that, it’s… Waists can be that tiny. They don’t just appear tiny on the screen, they are tiny. Stomachs can be that flat, they are not sucking it in for the picture.
This is possible.
What. The. Hell.
Now I know, I do not know the struggles of the inner workings of my coworkers, okay? Some might have issues, sure. But they have the perfect bodies. It shattered my reality once I noticed. It wasn’t gradual. It wasn’t sudden. It was an instant. It was the realization that this is reality. This is possible. This is normal.
I am overweight. And it is not normal.
And we can discuss this for as long as you want. I’m not interested. I don’t hate my body. I love it. And loving it is the reason why I want to nourish it right and have it be the right size. I can love my body and want to change it as well. If it’s for health reasons or attraction, that is up to me.
What I want to remark is that I am among the few in a company over 150 that are overweight. And these people are old. These people are mothers. All of us have desk jobs. There are no excuses.
I have no excuse.
I need to work on myself. One of the things that need to change about me is my body. There is no going around the hard work of exercising and eating healthy. I know, I tried.
I was just shocked, I guess. I was shocked that I had convinced myself that no matter how much I lost weight, I would never look like the people on screen because that is impossible. But it is. It is completely and utterly doable.
I don’t know if that’s a comfort or not. On the one hand, I can get there one day.
On the other hand, I’m not there yet.