"Sigh"... she looked at herself in the mirror wondering what to do to herself. To starve or not? She can feel the hunger pangs but this time she's not giving in to it. She walks out of the bathroom and changes her mind almost immediately. She's going towards the kitchen, "it's whatever" her subconscious mind thinks. "She" is "Us"! We all know this story. We have felt this way somehow one way or another before.
Does your weight really matter? NO. The questions we should be asking are, "Are you healthy?" "Is Your BMI normal?" The body's weight is just a number that is unfortunately linked to the body's health. So knowing the answers to these questions will help in figuring out what to pay attention to and what not to. Society today portrays a healthy body as a skinny body but unfortunately, a very small percentage of people actually are skinny and a large percentage of people out there are being mislead by the common notion "you have to be skinny to be healthy". Everyone is different, we can't all be the same way but we can learn to live healthy and be comfortable in our own skin.
Personally, i am naturally skinny and i always have been this way. But taking a course on Nutritional Biochemistry back in school, i found out my BMI (Body Mass Index) was below 18 which is considered underweight according to WHO as an adult over 20 years, did i consider myself healthy? NO. Still some people who weighed more than me wanted to be like me. I weighed 50kg at the time, i was underweight which is unhealthy and dangerous as much as being over-weight can be dangerous for our health too. It's not the outward looks that matter, what really matters is are you healthy and how do you live a healthy eating lifestyle as the food we eat largely contributes to the number the scale reads.
First of all, if you have done your BMI and you're of normal weight, it doesn't matter what you look like, whether you look like the typical model you've always fancied that has thigh gaps or not, your body is healthy and it's high time you started accepting your body and become comfortable with yourself. You are beautiful the way you are and above all you are healthy which is the most important. But, if your BMI's nutritional status falls under the over-weight or obese figures, you might want to lose some of that weight and not because you want to fit into the society or feel "beautiful" because you are already beautiful inside and outside, instead do it for yourself, your body deserves to be healthy and starving yourself is the wrong way to go about it.
Here are a few things to know when losing weight.
- DO NOT starve yourself or skip meals, you only slow down your body's metabolism and in turn burn less calories.
- Exercising is important but doing that alone never helps to shed a few pounds.
- A whole lot of your losing weight comes from your diet. A healthy nutritional plan will give your body the required calories and still help you prevent or lower the risk of weight related health diseases.
- Know that staying healthy does not mean having an unrealistic thin body or having strict dieting plans.
- Eating healthy means having a balanced diet in all your meals.
- Make a habit of drinking enough water daily. Water is generally calorie free which means it is linked to reduced weight gain. So the next time you're thirsty and having a beverage or soda comes to your mind, take a bottle of WATER instead :)
- Not all fat is harmful to the body. In fact, Fat is an essential part of a balanced diet and is required for healthy eating. Taking in healthy fat in the required amounts can help the body supply energy, absorb fat-soluble vitamins, help provide fat the body needs but can't manufacture and so much more. I would go into the biochemical importance of fats, what's healthy and what isn't, saturated and unsaturated fats but this isn't a science article so maybe in another post i"ll do just that.
- Still on healthy fats, saturated fat in our diet is dangerous for the body so to limit your intake of those replace animal meat, fried foods, butter and the likes with fatty fishes, avocados (high in unsaturated fat, helps with cardiovascular health and they can lower cholesterol and LDL- Low Density Lipo proteins, bad fats and replaces it with HDL- High density lipo proteins), non-fat or low-fat diary produce, cheese, etc. A few healthy fatty foods we can actually eat and enjoy!
- Eat more of whole grain foods, fruits and legumes. Also, have a stress-free mind because emotional health matters too in having a healthy weight.
Good luck with losing some excess weight and keep in mind, your diet helps a lot more with having a healthy weight and being too slim might mean your BMI is not all that great, hence pay more attention to your diet as well! It all begins and end with healthy eating. By the way, my BMI is 21.0 right now so YAY!
Love, M.
