Those People (Who Can Eat Anything and Still Look Great)
I saw on the cover of a magazine the other day a super skinny model holding a piece of cake up to her mouth and I thought, “yeah, right!” Frankly I couldn’t see how her toothpick legs were holding her up with such a heavy object in her hand and she probably cut that piece of cake with her knife-blade hipbones.
Throw that thing down the hatch and she’ll have a cake-shaped lump in her lack-of-stomach for days. It surprises me that we can still see images like these on magazine covers after all the backlash against the skinny hype in recent years.
I remember when titanic came out some years ago and everyone thought Kate Winslet was fat. I think that may have been the beginning of this recent shift in public thought. People got fed up with it and started coming out and defending Winslet as the healthy, normal person she was. Not too long after came the Bridget Jones’ Diary movies which were a huge success. We’re now making fun of those sickly skinny Hollywood types like Nicole Ritchie.
But that doesn’t mean that we see any fewer advertisements for fattening food and it doesn’t mean that it makes it any easier to look at these skinny models eating what we want to eat and looking like we want to look.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could all look like the women on McDonald’s commercials and Pepsi billboards? The fact is that the reality they portray is not real. These models’ careers depend on not eating fattening and sugary foods like those they sponsor. Ironic, isn’t it?
Not that this should get us down. Instead, we must understand in a personal sense how our bodies respond to certain foods and exercise so that we can be realistic about the goals we set for ourselves. Never get sucked into discouragement because it appears someone else can eat whatever they want and can maintain a perfect figure. There has to be some give and take for everyone—yes, everyone.
Decide what is most important to you and what will best fit in with your lifestyle. If you find yourself in social situations often where you feel obligated to eat, then pick up the slack in your exercise routine. If you just don’t have as much time to exercise as you would like, watch your calories and carbs closely. There should always be a balance between diet and exercise but just make sure those are in balance with your lifestyle as well.
