Please everyone stop pinning images like this. THEY ARE NOT REAL.
Well, I guess some of them are real, but I would say they aren't REALISTIC.
It's been driving me crazy for some time now. Because not one of the people who post these--look like this, or at least I haven't noticed one.
So that means everyone out there posts these to remind themselves of what they "should" look like, or at least aspire to.
Let me tell you--at my fittest in college I was tiny. I had a six pack if I flexed--well a 4 pack, for some reason I could never find the bottom two. I remember asking my boxing instructor how to get rid of the little layer of fat I had just below my belly button, and she said--you can't--you are a woman and it is there for a purpose. But I still tried.
I didn't have a body image problem, I ate as much as I wanted, and exercised because I loved to but I still wanted that six pack.
Fast forward to now. I have had four kids. I still have the same frame--haven't gained an inch past my all time high of 5 feet.
With every child I layered on some---dare I say it--- FAT!! *cringe* (Please sense my sarcasm)
Am I fat? No. I am tiny, but I do have a gut that sticks out over my jeans that often prompts people to ask if I am pregnant. I also have got that weird muscle thing that sometimes happens to pregnant women, where their muscles spread apart and don't go back--that contributes to what I lovingly refer to as my "beer gut"
Why am I telling you this? Well, because I know people refer to me as tiny and many people wish that their only problem was a beer gut and slightly thicker thighs. I want everyone to know that I do not look like that picture nor will I ever.
Even at my most fittest since my four kids--I weighed 113 and was working out regularly and eating well--I looked nowhere near this picture. I wish I would have taken a picture of myself just so I could post it. I was strong and healthy. And had I taken that picture, I doubt it would have been pinned as a strong and healthy body.
There were no ab muscles in site, and plenty of cellulite on my thighs and rear. And don't forget those lovely stretch marks.
So my point here is mostly to give up. (wow I'm a motivator!) But seriously--if this is your goal--give up. The only people I've ever seen that look like this post baby--are eating nothing, have a messed up body image, are taking some weird synthetic chemical ("it's not synthetic--it come from a pig"--someone actually told me--um, gross) or they straight up need to sort out their priorities.
Don't expect to look like this--is it possible? Yes probably, but seriously--women are given fat--yes FAT--that word again, so that they can protect and provide for those wonderful babies they are lucky to carry.
So embrace it. Bring back the Marilyn Monroes. Be curvy, be soft, be a woman.
You can be this--and be healthy and strong.
Either way--be REAL--istic.
8 comments:
um....once again, YOU ROCK!
True. I was 5'6 and a lean fit girl before kids. Like skinny lean. But never an ab in sight. Even in h.s. I had that little tiny bit of softeness in my belly. But I was a milk making, baby carrying machine. And I wouldn't trade that for abs ever. Great (real) post. :)
I'm standing and applauding and saying "Bravo" all at the same time. You nailed it.
You're not pregnant?.........Sorry, had to do it.
You're A-hole older brother.
THANK YOU!!!!
Jill you are my hero and i feel the same way!! My uncle says all those women who work their butts off to look like that will be really pissed when they get resurrected and don't look like that because women are made to be soft not tough hard bodies. I think this is another tool for satan to tell us we don't measure up. I'm totally pinning this with a description that will draw everyone to your site and read these awesome words!!
I looked like that in HS and early college. Yep, the 6-pack and all (nice, big, firm boobs). I have pictures to prove it. Now, I'm heavy, saggy, off-balance and hairy. Wouldn't change it for the world!
(I hope I made you smile)
THANK YOU! I totally agree with you, I think these images speak to really troubling ideas about women and their bodies-- beauty can look like a lot of different things, from an awesome lady bench-pressing a million pounds to a similarly awesome woman excited to be carrying a child! I would not trade my stretch marks for anything because to me, they symbolize my surviving puberty and growing up, which was an incredibly challenging, formative and sometimes terrifying experience, especially as a young woman. I hate being told that any parts of my body are not valid or not good enough!
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