Yes, I have to rant. I have to rant because it really sucks when I scroll through the social media accounts of celebs and watch how in one regard or another they are unhappy with their bodies and seem to be desperately searching for acceptance by way of manipulating themselves (i.e: dieting, waist trainers, teatoxes, plastic surgery, and loads of exercise). But what irks me to my core is when I see people I know flaunt these same tactics, hence displaying the same dissatisfaction. It frustrates me because I see their natural beauty and know how wonderful they are as people. It maddens me because I know they don’t need to torture themselves in such ways. It tugs at my heart strings because I don’t want them to live in calorie prison or clean eating confinement. It saddens me that they won’t allow themselves to fill up with friends on personal pizzas. It makes me feel like I need to scream louder. So here I am. Screaming louder.

YOUR BODY IS FINE THE WAY IT IS. YOUR BODY IS YEARNING FOR LOVE AND COMPASSION AND FOR YOU TO CARE FOR ITS INTERNAL MAKEUP RATHER THAN HOW NICELY IT FITS INTO A SIZE 2.

Your body is a wonderland…thanks John Mayer. But really. Please remember how absolutely unbelievable your waking body is each and every day it exists on this planet. It allows you to breathe in fresh air, move to the beat of your own drum, digest the many different types of foods you crave, pump blood at precise speeds, get aroused when engaging in sexual activity with you’re your partner, a fling, or yourself. Do I have to go on. Well, I should point out that each of these unbelievable moments involves hundreds of tiny, precise processes that are seemingly streamlined like a factory assembly line. Yet, we don’t think about this when we decide to consciously eat 1,200 calories/day. We don’t think about this when something is howling inside us to consume sugar and we outright deny the roar. Instead, we beat and bash our bodies one starved day after another. To the ladies that I hope are reading this- your body is even more miraculous than your male counterparts. You know this, but I’ll remind you. You were wired to carry a child. Whether or not that is something you want for your future, you were bred to hold a tiny human in your uterus, to carry that tiny human to term and to deliver that tiny human through a hole WAY smaller than the circumference of it’s head. You were bred to literally grow another human inside of YOUR BODY. I want you to stop reading this for a moment and take a pause to think about how utterly incredible that is.

PAUSE

Yeah. It is. So why are you jeopardizing this! Why are you sacrificing your body for an external appearance that the media has decided as your fate? Did you know that the rate of infertility amongst normally very fertile women (20-35) is skyrocketing? Did you know that the rate of young women engaging in extreme dieting and exercise is also skyrocketing? I’m no scientist, nor am I a doctor, but I whole-heartedly believe there is no coincidence in these two statistics co-occurring. When we starve ourselves (yes, restricting carbs counts here), when we over-exercise our bodies, our internal organs WILL NOT allow us to carry another baby. Why on Earth would your body take the chance that your baby could starve to death and result in a miscarriage when it is first-hand aware of how high the odds of that happening are (it knows because you’re already starving it without a baby present) If you know someone that was able to get pregnant while extreme dieting or exercising, that’s truly wonderful (not being sarcastic). I have another really sh*tty fact for them though- their babies will likely struggle with weight issues throughout their life. And no does this always mean they will be underweight- more often than not, they will fall on the BMI’s interpretation of overweight (side note: BMI means nothing. It was invented for entirely different purposes than it’s used for today). Why you wonder? Because they were starved in utero, were severely deprived, and their very smart, now born, and growing bodies are compensating.

If you don’t want to have children – your reproductive organs are still designed to work a certain way and you over exercising and obsessing about clean eating are 100% cramping their style. THEY NEED AND WANT CARBS TO EXIST OPTIMALLY. If you’re on the pill, you unfortunately will not be able to see the potential side effects your creating for your body because that tiny pill, hormonal IUD, patch, etc. is masking the important symptom you’re body is creating. The symptom is amenorrhea = absence of period. When the period goes, so too do lots of other wonderful things our reproductive hormones are responsible for [think hair loss, brittle bones, fatigue, digestive issues, headaches, nose bleeds, and more]. Oh and by the way- it’s actually insane to think that if every human being follows the same diet, every human being will then look a certain way. That’s like assuming that if we feed 100 newborns the exact same diet for the first five years of their life, they will grow to look exactly the same. THIS WON’T HAPPEN. IT’S IMPOSSIBLE. WE ARE UNIQUE INDIVIDUALS WITH DIFFERENT TRAITS.

Am I promoting eating McDonald’s 24/7? No. Not even a little bit. I am promoting a life of balance though. A life comprised of motives that lie in caring for your internal body rather than killing yourself for how it appears on the surface. When we focus on caring for our WHOLE bodies we end up eating a heck of a lot of nourishing foods and not denying ourselves the not so nourishing ones. Why? Because the latter options make us happy. Their tastes entice us, make our mouths water, make us so excited for that first bite, make us thrilled to get together with friends, colleagues, coworkers. All of these experiences are superb for our emotional well-being, which of course, is part of our being as a whole. Far too many people today proclaim that ‘will power’ is the best thing since sliced bread [they would probably never use that saying though because sliced bread is the devil, right??]. That denying yourself a cookie, a piece of decadent cake, or a basket of warm & salty fries is the greatest thing you can do for yourself, your health, and your body. This couldn’t be further from the truth. You’re not helping yourself, you’re harming yourself. You’re creating a sense of deprivation, desperation, and yearning within your mind and your physical body. This WILL catch up with you. Sadly, many folks diagnosed with Binge Eating Disorder began their binging after this very deprivation. Do you blame your body for binging though!? I don’t! You denied it everything it was asking for! When we actually listen to our bodies and don’t let our minds get in the way, they DO have the ability to control their appetite and they WILL stop before the whole cake has mysteriously gone missing. They won’t stop because they’re forced to due to the calorie content, they will stop because they are truly and comfortably full. So many of us have minds that got in the way far before we let our bodies make this decision for us, for some of us this was as young as five years old. But why did we stop listening to our body’s intelligence? Because our external bodies had an appearance that wasn’t aligned with society’s one stop-shop-standard!

The size and shape our body is when we live a life where we move joyfully and embrace balance- one of food freedom and no deprivation- is the size and shape our body wants to be and was meant to be.

Why can’t we accept our bodies for THOSE shapes and sizes? Go look at some old family photos. Go look at your lineage. I bet your Grandma or your Great Aunt or maybe even your Great Great Grandma had some curves. Or maybe she didn’t and you don’t either! Honor their heritage. Stop fighting biology. The way we function, the way our bodies allow us to function, is so much more important than the size we are while doing so.

To anyone reading this that I know personally- please know that everyone loves you regardless of your fitness level, your dress size, or the number on the scale. However, I cannot force you to honor your natural beauty, so please don’t be afraid that I’m judging your decisions one way or another. I can assure you, I’m not, and I will always support your endeavors. But I had to scream louder, for I simply want what’s best for you and wish you would find happiness from your insides rather than your outsides.

If you’re still reading this lengthy rant, my wish for you is to simply be yourself. JUST BE. Go honor your passions, dreams, deepest desires. Stop spending so much precious time worrying about the six-pack abs and thigh-gapped-thighs you “need” to have while doing so. Your body will always win in the end, whether it be today or 5-10 years down the line. So please, stop trying to defy the odds, embrace the joys of delicious eats, and start living!

#eatthefood #carbs4dayz #dietsblow