Body Image

     Much of the talk today is to overcome our unrealistic beauty standards; especially here in the West where we believe beautiful is Barbie or modern G.I. Joe. I completely support it. We all know companies and media are a big factor to blame in all this, so we can put more money into their products. Though, I have no desire to bore us with that talk. My last blog talked about the scam ads promoting magic pills. For some people it’s a struggle to see that scam and wish it were real. I did. I still do. I love my face and hair and I love the clothes that make me feel confident. My confidence level is through the roof some days… as for other days; it’s through the floor. I began to power lifting because I envied the strength, but in the back of my mind, I wanted to be smaller, too.  That’s were I faltered. When I first began training, I was very back and forth on my training weeks. I would be so determined for two to three weeks and then I’d have zero motivation to do anything but sleep.  I would hate on myself so much during those weeks. I’d think how lazy I am, which would make me want to do it less as I felt too shitty about myself. Eventually, I’d force myself back into it and the cycle continued. My biggest problem is feeling so hopeless. Most of my life, I have been back and forth with my weight in extremes. Right now is the heaviest I've been. Partially due to the fact I've gained new muscle, which is super exciting! Though for the last few months I've kept to lifting. So far, I haven’t let myself quit. I still feel the low. What some people don’t realize is that when you have constantly fought the battle of gaining and losing weight for a long time, you have this epiphany of why do I care anymore? Why should I continue trying when it gets me nothing and I just relapse anyway. I've felt this many times, but I still continue trying because I know I can reach my dream. I want to look into the mirror and love my body! That’s why I’m grateful to my dad for introducing me to power lifting. Without it, I would be fifty pounds heavier today, still feeling bad about myself. I gain a little more confidence every time I come out of the gym. I hope others life me feel this way when they leave the gym or get done doing whatever exercise because even if you don’t see the results right away, it’s progress physically as well as mentally.

Idiots

I was on Facebook the other day when I saw an ad for this miracle diet from Doctor Oz. The girls before and after pictures were familiar to me. I remembered seeing them on a power lifting blog. After a little searching I found the blog. It was about the girl’s success and achievements and all that, but the ad was using her pictures saying she was using a miracle fruit or pill that doesn't exist. This did not in any way surprise me. Though I was shocked at how much positive response there was in the comments. So many women were sucked into it and were talking about buying it. I just couldn't believe it. You could visibly see in the after photo how much more toned and muscular she was compared to her before photo where she had no muscle at all. I guess I was appalled because of that. This ad was claiming she just took a pill and magically became healthy and fit or ‘skinny’ when it tells you right in the girls blog how hard she worked for that. Also, the ad claimed she had lost thirty pounds when actually, she had gained weight from the new muscle mass. It makes me pity them to see how gullible they are. I've had my fair share of being sucked into whatever products, but they make those ads in particular embarrassingly obvious it’s a blatant lie. I've had body issue problems my whole life. I've always hated the extra fat on my body. I've yo-yo-ed with my weight through the years, but I've known there is no such thing as a ‘magic’ pill or ‘super-fruit’. I just wish that people would understand that, too. It takes hard work. Power lifting isn't an easy sport. I've had my days were I just want to quit because it’s unbelievably draining, even for someone who’s been doing it all there lives. Then the other side of the comments were shaming her for how she looked in the after photo. People—primarily women –said things like she looked better in the before photo and the after picture was photo shopped and she’s ugly or a slut. That really pissed me off. There is no excuse for body shaming and please, someone tell me, why people were throwing around the comment ‘slut’. Really?  One person couldn't find anything bad to say about the photos so they just decided ‘slut’ was an acceptable insult and other people grew on that? I’m just flabbergasted about the whole thing. People are so gullible and then so critical it makes my head spin. I hope no one I know falls for these marketing ploys; there stupid, heartless scams.