Curry Tastes as Good As Thin Feels
by lemonadeandlemoncake
tastes as good as thin feels.
maybe a bit better than thin feels.
Nothing tastes as good as thin (or, according to Jillian Michaels, lean,) feels.
Most. Alienating. Statement. Ever.
Probably because I’ve never been thin. I’ve tried. I’ve wanted to be. I’ve thought there was a thin girl under all this flab just waiting to break on out but it turns out I was internalizing fat-phobia shoved on me through, well, everywhere. But this statement, that nothing tastes as good as thin feels, gives you hope when you’re dieting. Because you miss all that yummy, sinful food.
And you’re thinking, I don’t know if this is worth it, denying myself of an enjoyable relationship with food. Dieting has always been depressing for me in that way. You do this, and you have to stick with it for a LONG time. And diet culture just acts like it’s not important to enjoy your food. But it’s important to me.
But I’d like to examine the assumption that being thin is, like, the BEST. FEELING. EVER. I’ve never been thin, so maybe I can’t talk. But I’ve met a lot of thin people, and their lives are not perfect. They still have plenty of problems.
Heck, a lot of them still diet because they think they are fat. Their health is not universally perfect. Not all thin people have lovers, clear skin, and perfect lives. So what is it about being thin that’s OH MY GOD SO GREAT as opposed to just another body type? I can see how it would be nice to skip out on the discrimination and the fat-phobia.
It’d be nice to go to a Dr’s office and not automatically have the OHMYGODYOUHAVEDIABETES fear mongering session, only to do the test and find out, to their surprise but not mine, that I don’t have diabetes. And I wouldn’t feel alienated by statements like this one. Thin is held up on a pedestal. It’s worshipped. People who aren’t thin are seen as disgusting and shameful (unless they constantly torture themselves to become thin.) And it’s not like it’s easy, or even attainable for many people.
Diets fail 98 percent of the time. Long term success is a fluke. Practically a freak occurrence. Even weight loss surgery isn’t the cure-all it’s advertised as. It ruins your health, even if it helps you lose weight. Newsflash: surgically mutilating your organs is not healthy for you.
Oh wait, what’s that? Yeah, that’s right. Fat is not mutually exclusive with heath. This attitude, this ‘nothing is better than being THIN’ and ‘THINNESS CURES EVERYTHING’ attitude, is damaging, because it alienates those of us who have never, do not, and/or will not ever fit into the picture.
It’s fat shaming. Thin is the only way to go! It’s also a pro-ana statement, which is why it makes me laugh when people claiming to be in it for the health of it, like Jillian Michaels, repeat it. Of course, it’s hard to believe that people buy into her particular brand of ‘health,’ what with her promoting eating disordered behavior on TBL and selling diet pills.
It makes sense, though. ‘Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.’ NOTHING. That means you should get there at all costs. Including sacrificing your health.
I was previously fat. I am currently thin. I have a huge list of things that EASILY taste as good and probably better as being thin feels.
Why? Because thin is never enough anyway. The people who would say that always think that it would be better to be just a tiny bit thinner. Besides, it’s not the feeling of “being thin” that these people are touting. It’s the feeling of being socially acceptable… of not having to worry about shame and humiliation when you walk out the door.
Now… I might be able to get on board with “Nothing tastes as good as being fit feels” – because I really do enjoy the “feeling” of being fit… but then, fitness does not require avoidance of certain foods – you can have both!
So I submit the following to those people.
The list of things that totally taste better than “being thin feels”
- Baked crab from the Chinese Buffet
- Giant slice of cheese pizza from Tony’s
- Spinach salad with egg and bacon and bacon fat dressing
- Chocolate cake
- Carrot Cake
- Cheese Cake
- Cheese
- Cheese
- Cheeeeeeeeeeeese
- Hamburger
- French fries
Well, I could go on.
Instead… I’ll go the opposite direction. It’s easier.
Thin TOTALLY feels better than the following taste…
- Brussels Sprouts
- Celery
- Limberger cheese
Um…. I can’t think of anything else right now.
Thin is never enough anyway. Exactly.
I’m currently on Weight Watchers. I love it! I can think of several things that are way better than being on my diet though. They are usually my stumbling blocks. And I just take the weight gain with the yummyness!
One of my favorite things to eat is ice cream. And I make sure to have it when ever I want it. Why diet then? Why pump that $15 a month into the diet if you don’t stick to it? Simple, it worked. I dropped 20 lbs. And even when I went off it I didn’t gain more that 5 lbs back. And I really did learn portion size. I learned how to use and read the label on the side of the box. So it’s not a total waste of money. I’m also dieting because I’m getting married. And I want everything perfect. Am I setting myself up for disappointment? Maybe.
But its the one time that I get to be a super nag about everything. I’m in a “healthy” weight bracket. And I can say that it feels pretty good. I can finally run, where as before I didn’t have enough stamina to do so. And I don’t make a habit out of running. In fact, I do it as little as I have to.
If it wasn’t such a big deal in our society maybe I wouldn’t have felt compelled to diet before my wedding. But sadly it is. Also, one of my long shameful secrets, I’ve always had crooked teeth. Unless you’ve had crooked teeth, you probably won’t understand where this comes from. But I struggled with it since I was in Jr. High. Actually before that. When most girls are getting their teeth fixed and made pretty, I was mostly left out. I won’t go into why. But the desire to have beautiful teeth, and to smile beautifully is just about as bad as the pressure to diet. So what have I done in the last 2 years? Dieted my little soul out, and I slapped on a pair of 5K braces.
Beauty is everything in our culture. If you’re not pretty your nothing. And that is so sad. Because there are beautiful women out there that don’t realize their true beauty. And they cake on the make up and they diet and diet and diet. Why? Because we have “value” when we are beautiful. What a bunch of shit. But I bought into it. Why? Because I have my own set of insecurities.
i get why you diet, i used to do it too. while i have my qualms with dieting, WW isn’t the most harmful one. it still teaches you that you cannot trust your body but instead some diet professionals, which rubs the wrong way with me. and liz, you’re going to look stunning on your wedding day. braces or none, weight loss or none. we all have these insecurities yes- because we’re taught that if we’re not shiny and pretty and perfect we’re nothing. bah, though. it’s not true.