There was a time in my teen years that really stands out to me about when I began to hate the way I looked. I was in 9th grade and why they did this, I still have no idea…but it was a terrible idea. In gym class—that had both guys and girls, they did body measurement tests in front of the whole class. When I’m talking body measurements, I mean like our weight, height, what percentage of fat we had on our bodies, they checked our flexibility, and also did a test of how many pull ups you could do.
I really didn’t think anything of it until the guy in front of me went to get tested. All I remember was that he could do 20 pull ups and that he weighed 90 lbs.
When it came to my turn to be tested, I could do zero pull ups and I weighed about 20 lbs more. I was mortified. I couldn’t understand how I weighed more than a boy.
But from that moment on, I struggled with what I thought about my body.
It didn’t help that the teen magazines that I would read at that time all talked constantly about diets and newest exercise trends.
If I can be honest with you, probably from the moment I woke up until the moment I went to sleep at night, what I thought about my body was constantly running in my mind. I became obsessed with pointing out every flaw I had, obsessed with comparing myself to all of the girls around me, and obsessed with trying to be the “perfect size.” It was a constant nightmare.
In this society that we live in, I’m sure that you have probably seen this before in someone that you know or maybe you have dealt with thinking negatively about the way you look. In our society, they seem to say, “If you’re skinny…I mean what is a thigh gap anyway…but if you’re skinny, you’re pretty and popular,” but if you are heavier, it seems to be a joke.
Ladies this is not okay!
God created all of us uniquely, not two of us…even if we are identical twins are exactly alike. We aren’t the same height or the same weight or have the same bone structure or the same hair color or eye color. God created all of us to be different shapes and sizes and guess what…He says that you’re beautiful!
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