Beach Bodies and Prom Pressure

It's that time of year again-a feminist's worst nightmare. That's right: just before summer! That time when advertisements and even friends are persuading young girls to lose weight for any number of silly reasons.  Perhaps they are supposed to want a perfect "beach body," or maybe prom is coming up and they have fantasy expectations.

See? These thin white girls are having SO much fun in their beach bodies!

First of all, it just isn't fair for the media to represent only one body type as beautiful.  This notion could be internalized and women may come to have unrealistic expectations of their own bodies.  But the topic I would like to address is the intense diets people go through to try to achieve these bodies.  Realistically, people can only lose a few pounds a week (tops!) in a healthy way.  However, these diets boast that they will eliminate 10+ pounds in just a few days.  This may be true, but it is definitely not healthy.  A few "pre-prom" diets I have come across involve juice only, celery & carrot sticks, protein shakes, and admittedly disgusting concoctions to control hunger.

These are extremely unhealthy diets!  Creating a lifestyle designed to lose weight is not a healthy way of thinking either.  Choices of food and exercise should be made based on what your body needs to function and be happy.  If your current lifestyle is not meeting your body's needs, then consider making a change.  But NOT for the sake of weight loss, and certainly not through one of the aforementioned "diets."  Healthful meals are colorful, varied, and contain foods with lots of necessary nutrients (the less processed the better!).  A bit of exercise every day will keep your body happy, like ten minutes of dancing around your room.  Finally, getting good nights of sleep is ideal.  These tips will help keep your body healthy and happy.  You don't need to lose weight to be the perfect YOU!

Be sure to remember, we ALL have beach bodies! Just take your body, and go to the beach!