Strong is the new Body Image Crisis.

This blog piece is a reflection of my own thoughts, ideas and opinions only.

Personally I think this new shift to eating well, exercising, and eliminating processed food has been a great one.  I'm enjoying looking through social media and seeing excellent recipes and workouts. What I'm not impressed with is the new ‘ideal’ muscular body shape.

Looking beyond the skin deep, it appears all we have done is swapped one unrealistic body shape for another. We no longer wish to be wafer thin like glamour models; instead we want to be perfectly toned like fitness and bikini models. We've swapped starvation and hours of cardio for ridged no gluten, no dairy, no sugar, low carb meal plans, and sophisticated workouts, and this is not healthy. To top it off, these new 'strong' role models are still being photographed and photo shopped by professionals.

Before I go further I would like to define what an eating disorder is. Disordered eating is the all-consuming manipulation of food and exercise in order to achieve a specific body composition. An eating disorder occurs when a person chooses exercise over attending social activities on a regular basis. It occurs when a person opts out of attending a social event as they are worried about eating the food which may be offered there, or they bring along their own food. A person doesn’t have to be thin, skinny, cut, buff, overweight, or underweight to have an eating disorder, because the disorder is a mental battle. It is about the thoughts and actions of the sufferer.

Which leads back in to what I was talking about earlier: strong being the new skinny. Very few of us are genetically blessed. Most of us have to work out and watch what we eat to maintain a healthy body composition. Few of us can do this and have a perfectly toned, unmoving, muscular body. We all have a set point at which our body likes to stay. This point is not a certain weight, because it’ll likely fluctuate, but it might be a certain shape or size. This is the point where we are eating healthy enough, enjoying flexibility around our food, engaging in regular moderate to hard intensity exercise, and maintaining a good body composition.

I relate to this as think I am at this point. I enjoy a variety of food, being 80% unprocessed, fresh, healthy meals, and 20% indulgences. I don’t really plan what I am going to eat - I go with what I feel - but I only have healthy food on hand so it's always a healthy choice. I also enjoy a variety of exercise over five to six days, ensuring no two days are the same. This exercise is mixed up with everything from strength training, running, hill sprints, spin bike, circuit classes, swimming, yoga... And my body stays the same at a healthy body composition. However I do still jiggle around when I run and jump, my stomach skin hangs down if I am doing a plank, I have speed humps at the top of my legs which rub together when I walk, my thighs look like the surface of the moon (thanks cellulite), and I bloat once a month like I swallowed a watermelon whole. Now if I wanted to get rid of all these normal female body traits and be a perfectly toned, unmoving, muscular woman, I would have to step across the line from generally healthy to the (falsely perceived) “super” healthy. And there is where we have the issue.

If I decided to cross this line to achieve that body: the unmoving thighs, popping abs, and bulging biceps, I would have to change a lot about how I function day to day. I’d need to drop all treats from my week, I would have to ensure I eat five to six mini meals a day which consisted of the right amount of protein, carbs, and fats all of which I would need to eat at exactly the right time. I would need to follow a religious structured workout plan, focusing on heavy weight lifting and lots of intense cardio. I wouldn’t be able to miss a day, a meal, or mix things up because I would be sabotaging my efforts to drop body fat (to dangerous level) and build muscle. Resultantly, I wouldn’t be able to socialize with my friends over meals, wouldn’t be able to enjoy a variety of food, wouldn’t be able to mix up my exercise, wouldn’t be able to sleep in when I felt I needed it, wouldn’t be able to go on burger date night with my partner, wouldn’t be able to skip a gym day and go for a walk instead. In the end, exercise and a strict diet is prioritised over all the other things in my life. I’d need regular weigh ins, measurements and body fat calculations, I’d need meal diaries and to spend hours doing meal prep each weekend.

That is a big sacrifice just to make my thighs look like the smooth surface of pebbles. At the end of the day though this is my point of view. I have obtained this view on what I have experienced through knowing and conversing with bikini competitors, being an athlete, having athlete friends, from being involved in strict dieting and exercise, working in gyms and from training many different people.

I don't believe an excessive level of dedication to a “healthy” life style is healthy at all, especially not in the long run. Does crossing that line not sound like a mental health issue? Has swapping our desire to look like Kate Moss with Emily Skye just shifted our body image obsession, or has it made a change for the better?

                                                        

   Emily Skye                                                                                        Kate Moss