Throughout the course of time and throughout the many different countries, there has been many different ideas on what we consider as the 'perfect' body type. We also have our own ideas on what we think the 'perfect' body type is; whether that be for our own bodies or the bodies of others.
As a nineteen year old living in today's society, I have seen so many people, whether that be on social media or in real life, who, including myself, feel that their body has to look a certain way in order to please others and make them like them. I have seen so many people who feel the need to lose weight just so they can get a boy or girl to like them or to get their partner to want to stay with them and not move on to someone else who has a 'better body' than them. They believe that someone's body who has a 'better body' makes the other person more attractive and that they need to achieve this body in order to make themselves more attractive.
This, of course, is not helped by the current climate whereby people are being paid to promote diet products on Instagram, claiming that they have religiously used those products and those products are the reason why they have managed to lose so much weight. And the worst thing about this is that many people believe them and will go out and buy these products which are actually incredibly harmful and will then find that they do not actually lose all this weight, and even if they do they will not be able to maintain it. What the people who are promoting these products fail to disclose in their Instagram posts or stories is that they probably have not even tried using these products and just liked the look of the paycheck they were getting to promote the product. In order to get to the size and weight that they display on Instagram, chances are they are most likely to have a healthy diet and do lots of exercise. They are not using the products they claim to love in order to lose weight, they are doing it by eating good food and getting plenty of exercise.
I know that growing up, BMI (Body Mass Index) was made out to be a very important thing and that our worth was validated by either having a normal or underweight BMI and if our BMI was overweight or obese then we would be ridiculed and made to feel worthless. I can remember in year 6 we all had to be weighed and measured by a nurse so she could see what our BMI was. She did not tell us that result, however as we had to step on a scale we could see how much we weighed. I cannot remember how much I weighed at the time, however I do know that it was a bit more than others in my class and while everyone was talking about how much they weighed, I was scared of telling anyone my real number as I thought that everyone would laugh at me and make me feel worthless so I made the number up to fit in with everyone else. I can also remember a few years later in year 10 for some reason everyone was talking about their BMI and were trying to work theirs out and if anyone was overweight or obese they were laughed at and called a "fat f***"; yet those who were classed as underweight were people to be jealous of and the person with the lowest BMI was the best person in the class.
I personally think that the BMI system either needs to be updated or scrapped completely as I do not think it is an appropriate way to see how healthy a person is. For example, I have recently decided that I could do with losing a bit of weight as I have not been eating as I should over recent months and have put quite a bit of weight on. I am five foot tall and at the time I decided I needed to lose weight I weighed ten stone ten pounds and now weigh ten stone six pounds. I looked at what my BMI is and I am at the higher end of the overweight section. My clothes size is between ten and twelve and when you look at my body, at least when I look at it, I do not think I look overweight. In fact, I think if I conducted an experiment where I walked around the streets and asked people if I look overweight they would say no (although that could be me being big-headed and thinking like a stupid person). But numbers on a BMI scale and numbers on your scales DO NOT MATTER! They do not make you any less or any more human than you already are. They do not define you as a person.
The only thing that is perfect is you. Not your weight, not your looks, not your clothes size, but you. You as a person is what is perfect. People are not going to remember you for your weight or your looks or your size; they are going to remember you for who you are as a person and the positivity that your bring. All weights are beautiful, all looks are beautiful, all clothes sizes are beautiful. For as long as you are healthy, your weight should not be something that gets you down and you should be able to live your life how you want to live it and not let the opinions of anyone else, whether they personally know you or not, make you feel like you have to change yourself in some way. You are perfect and do not need to change AT ALL and should cherish the fact that you are a good person and need to realise that showing people that you are a good person is way more important than changing yourself just to conform to their idea of the 'perfect body'.
There is no such thing as this 'perfect body' and the sooner the world realises this, the better.
Love Beth xx
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