UNIQUELY YOU

☀️I used to envy and idolize celebrities and models in the media. I faithfully purchased and devoured all the weekly gossip, health, and diet magazines that bombarded the checkout aisles at local stores. Every week a new issue came out, but the information was always more or less the same. But they consistently promised “This was it!” —they held the secret to getting the perfect body and a revolutionary new method to obtaining happiness. I was sold. Every. Single. Time.
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These magazines took far more from me than my money though. They took my time, as I prioritized researching all the products that comprised some celebrity’s diet plan. They took my self-esteem, as I mindlessly browsed airbrushed photos of bodies I could never emulate. They took my physical health, as I forced myself to adhere to unsustainable eating and exercise plans. And above all else they took my sanity and sense of self. I realized no matter how much I tried to copy the regimens of those I wished to resemble, it would always be my reflection I saw in the mirror.
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Fad diets or celebrity endorsed programs exist because of our internal dissatisfaction and incessant need for a quick fix. They survive on our consent to risk our wellbeing in exchange for the utopian lifestyle designed to deceive. One of their marked deficiencies is that they ignore numerous factors that play a part in determining what we look like. It’s not as simple as just calories and exercise. And even then —we are not machines —all bodies process, utilize, and store calories differently. Health is as much an art as it is a science.
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One of the most beautiful things about us results from our differences. None of us share the exact same DNA or genetic makeup. And each one of us is going to approach and relate to life in our own way. You don’t need to eat-like or exercise-like someone else. You do get to embrace who you are and marvel that you’re one in a million. ~Britt💜