"Being Fit vs Being Skinny"

It seems being skinny is still a growing obsession in young women today. To get that skinny body women will do just about anything. They will do so many unhealthy things to their beautiful bodies to obtain that skinny look. It's quite sad and very tragic to me to see so much of this on weight loss blogs today. The main goal is not to get fit and healthy, it is to get skinny whatever the cost. I don't think these women know at what cost they will face down the road when they chose this route to be skinny.

 

I am a survivor of the eating disorder Anorexia Nervosa and at the time I suffered from it I didn't know it had a name or was even a disease. It's no joke and the effects you put your body through to be skinny will have a permanent effect on you and your body for the rest of your life. I took it to the extreme of it being life threatening and at my lowest weight I was 17 and graduating high school at 71 pounds at 5'3. I was small, but at 71 pounds I became almost nothing. I was super skinny, but not so beautiful as my brother pointed out to me. This starving disease robs you of your beauty over time. You don't realize it because you can only see that your fat in the mirror when you look at yourself. You don't see the real you when your suffering from this disease.

  

The visual side effects from this ugly disease is... thinning and loss of hair, bad, sallow toned skin. Your bones start to show through your skin. Body bruises easily and your nails won't grow. You lose your period due to stress and low body fat. Your always cold and your stomach is always sore and aching from hunger. Your body is not getting the proper nutrition it needs to survive let alone look good, so you begin to start wasting away right in front of everyone eyes except your own. You cannot see it nor accept it as your main goal is just being super skinny and you're never satisfied so you keep losing more weight to fuel your desire to be skinny. You've gone past the point of obtaining a thin beautiful body. There is no beauty in being unhealthy, skinny and falling apart.

My salvation was my brother introducing me to the beautiful iron and teaching me how to sculpt my body and be strong, fit and healthy. While I was suffering from this disease I was still an athlete as I was a competitive swimmer and I also loved to run long distance. I wish I had treated my body better so that I could of been at my very best and seen my true potential as a competitive swimmer and runner. I would do anywhere from 3500-5000 yards at swim practice 6 days a week and run 3-5 miles sometimes twice daily on just a apple and glass of milk. I was lucky as I always did great in competition because I have the heart and drive of a competitor, but I could of been better, much greater as a athlete if I had known then what I know now. I would of taken better care of my body and feed it what it needed to thrive and excel... not be skinny and under nourished.

  

I was able to see my potential when I turned to being fit and healthy and sculpting my body with weight lifting. I knew that all the hard work and sacrifice I gave to my training would never show if I continued to starve and deplete my body as I had been doing for so many years. I had to come to terms with adding weight to my body and knowing it was okay and I was going to make myself look and be fit, healthy and beautiful inside as well as outside. I was in control of my body in a whole different way and it took a lot of time and learning to love myself enough to want better for me.

My hope is for other young women to skip a lot of these bad experiences I went through for years and start taking control of their own body in a positive healthy, fit way. They need to realize and know that being fit is so much more appealing and healthy then being skinny and unhealthy. If they can see a thin, fit body verses a skinny, unhealthy body I'm most positive they will want to put their time and energy in to being fit and healthy.  Being skinny and unhealthy takes so much time and energy. Put all that energy towards a healthy fit body and stop the never ending spiral and suffering of this disease and become the person you were meant to be. Healthy, fit, beautiful and a Champion!

 ✿