'Unhealthy lifestyle.' (Originally Published Aug 30th 2012)

Do you think this picture is advertising an unhealthy lifestyle?

I have always thought that if you look vaguely human shaped you’re probably doing OK. That if your size does not alter your life in any way that you shouldn’t be forced to change it. I hate The Biggest Loser, Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition (yes, that exists) and to be honest I’m not a massive fan of housewives’ favourite Weight Watchers. 

Ok, why do I hate Weight Watchers? 1. It institutionalises women’s issues with their bodies for profit. 2. You could do it in the safety of your own home for free. 3. There is absolutely and categorically no one size fits all treatments for any one body issue. There are hundreds, thousands of women in just this country alone who want to lose weight and I can garentee that because of their lifestyle, their job, where they live, what kind of family they live in, where they came from, their parents, their children and tonnes of other factors, they will not respond to the same treatment as the next. Yes, if you eat less and do more exercise you will lose weight BUT WE ALREADY KNEW THAT. This isn’t some huge secret uncovered by Jean Nidetch. This isn’t a cult that you HAVE to join to change your body and to be perfectly honest with you it kind of is a cult (paying to be provided with a belief system).

TANGENT OVER. 

The picture above has gone through Facebook asking you the question if you think Plus Size models encourage an unhealthy lifestyle? These girls, who can eat reasonable and humanly acceptable amounts of food, don’t smoke and don’t drink are somehow promoting that you should be aspiring to be 26 stone. There are people in the comments of this picture discussing whether she has obesity caused diabetes. DIABETES. These women are size 14 and 16, this is average and if they are over 5’4” PERFECTLY HEALTHY. I am using a lot of capitals in this but this is what I made this site to write about. 

I am a size 16/18 and I am absolutely perfectly OK with that. I am 14 stone and 5’3” and my BMI is literally half a stone away from being in the green. I have no words (I know I clearly have a lot of words) when people think that girls who are thinner and taller than me will somehow get diabetes when that is a symptom of morbid obesity. 

The woman in this picture is undeniably facially beautiful, she has flawless skin and really lovely tone to her body. So no Facebook, I do not think she is promoting an unhealthy lifestyle. I think she is working in a small industry that is helping towards making looking ‘perfectly fine’ aspirational.

You all look perfectly fine, stop worrying about everyone else’s opinion of your body and form one of your own. Once you do everyone else's just seems less important.