How to not overly focus on weight

Whether it’s weight gain or weight loss, at some point in our lives, we will struggle to deal with our weight. We see so many healthy eating bloggers and fitness Instagram accounts that sometimes it all becomes too much to deal with. Is there a perfect body? I’m not just talking about women, because as much as they hate to admit it, men also face body confidence issues.  

All of us have seen transformation weight loss photos on Instagram about how someone who already had a beautiful body to begin with gained muscle or lost weight by making numerous and very strict lifestyle choices, however I can say for a lot of us that we are sick to death of seeing these every day. Lately I have seen a change in these types of Instagram accounts. I have noticed transformation pictures where women go from body builders to body lovers because sometimes having the perfect body isn’t as healthy as it seems in terms of mental health. The Instagram account of ‘joleeeenin‘ shows how she went to a slim size 8 to a curvier figure explaining how some people would call it “letting yourself go, but you can’t put a price tag on happiness”. Her gruelling gym regime didn’t allow her to have a social life and she felt like she was “never enough and always needed to improve”.  

Gaining weight is nothing to hide under the duvet about however when I gain a little Christmas bulge I have thought about leaving to a secluded place where no one could take pictures of me and put them on Facebook. We are human and as long as we stay healthy, we have nothing to worry or obsess over. Gaining weight isn’t always a bad thing and the men and women who have recovered from eating disorders are proof of this. Julia Grigorian was a 20– year old college student is San Diego who was burning off almost every single calorie that she consumed when she found help from people who also suffered from anorexia. She shared an Instagram post documenting the positive transformation saying, “Do not be afraid to reach out for help. I wasted months of my life thinking I was not sick enough. It doesn’t work like that.” 

The #edrecovery hashtag which stands for eating disorder recovery has been used over 3 million times on Instagram promoting body positivity and leading an example for those who are suffering from eating disorders. Therefore, not everything we see on Instagram is an example of what society thinks our body type should be, but a useful tool in showing everyone that they should embrace the body they have grown into.