Human Anatomy: Discussing Our Collective Differences

Diet culture, weight loss, a societal "standard of beauty" - all things that young adults (particularly women, from a personal perspective) constantly hear about and yearn to achieve.  And it's nearly unreachable; I'm sure we're all attuned to that knowledge, but the medias seemingly never-ending badgering, size 0 female models, or toned and muscular male models are most commonly depicted.  Where is the collective of individuality?  The different body sizes: tall and short, thick and thin, hairy and not, modest and immodest?

This stigma surrounding weight loss is destructive and (ironically) unhealthy, especially in the way it's looked at and discussed.  Personally, I will never look like a Victoria's Secret model, not that it's ever been a goal of mine anyway.  Nothing against them at all, but it's just unrealistic for me.  I don't mean to say that in a demeaning way at all, but rather in an honest one.  If I were to grab onto my skin and feel the bones beneath them, it would be obvious to me that losing a few pounds of fat would not lessen the width of my hips.  

I would realize that my rib cage is as full as it needs to be to protect my heart, lungs, and organs.  I would realize that my skeleton will not be reshaped to fit a size 2 no matter how many miles I ran in a day.  I would realize that there is a healthy weight for me, and one for the girl on the treadmill next to me, and one for the man a block over who's opening up his bakery for the day, and one for the boy on the other side of the world just heading to bed.

I do not preface all of this to mean that you cannot or should not try to follow Susie Q's regime that just helped her drop 40 pounds, or Billy Bob's 30 day ab-blaster, or whatever the new fad is, but just garner a realistic expectation that you are not going to end up with the same physical results as everybody.  That does not mean you didn't lose weight.  That does not mean you aren't already currently healthy.  That does not mean you're less worthy, or beautiful, or strong or powerful or incredible.  It just means you're you.

You were born with specific chromosomes that maybe gave you a thinner rib cage compared to my wider one.  A smaller chest compared to my bigger one.  Thinner hips compared to my wider ones.  But none of that matters, it's all irrelevant to the bigger picture here: my size 8 may be your size 2, whereas my size 12 may be your size 6.  Our healthiest, "smallest" selves can and will fit into different sized jeans, because you're you and I'm me.  

I have a few friends who have been working incredibly hard to lose weight and live healthier lives, and I am so incredibly proud of them and their achievements.  But a setback they're experiencing is feeling like their personal accomplishments are lesser than others, as if they still aren't happy with their healthier selves because they don't see themselves on a magazine cover or their sizes readily available in popular department stores.  On the flip side, I, as well as a few of my friends, have experienced some weight gain.  A few of them have mentioned they don't like themselves this way, or they wish to look like they used to in high school, or aspire to look like X, Y, or Z.  It's just depressing to me that we live in a society that has achieved exploiting people (young women especially, from a personal perspective), to the extent that they feel so uncomfortable with themselves they would do anything to change it.  And they do.  There's an explosive diet culture making major bank off of the self-conscious, and it seems as though nobody's really discussing it.

My bones, my skeleton, the foundation of my being and anatomy - they were made wide by my chromosomes, to help me stand tall and broad and powerfully even in my most weak state.  They were made to help me lift myself back up, and carry others along when they required assistance.  They were made for me, to help me conquer my own life in the way I so dreamed.  Just as your skeleton was made for you.

We are all made differently.  There is no "one size fits all," and we shouldn't strive for that anyway.  We are all worthy, regardless of what our scales read or how our tags say we're sized.  Read that again, then again if you have to.  As many times or for as many years as it takes for you to believe it.  I understand, because I'm there too.  But I'm tired of it...  I wish you all the very best in whatever personal endeavors you're currently up against.

A few quotes to aid you:

"Life is too short to waste any amount of time wondering what other people think about you. In the first place, if they had better things going on in their lives, they wouldn't have the time to sit around and talk about you. What's important to me is not others' opinions of me, but what's important to me is my opinion of myself." - C. JoyBell C.

"I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself." - Rita Mae Brown

"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not." - Andre Gide