8.08.2012

There is hope for humanity day 1: healthy is the new skinny

Hello all!

I'm going to start something new in light of the amazing blogs that I have been running across lately.  I am going to start the "There is hope for humanity" blog series.  Everyday I will post a blogger or website or Youtuber that has inspired countless readers, myself included. I hope you enjoy!

Day one is: Healthy is the New Skinny.  This excellent site is about promoting healthy habits and embracing what your natural and healthy body is and being content with it.  The models from this inspiring company have come from all different walks in life, from being "too big" as a size 6 to being forced to wear padding when they lost weight as a plus size model.  The company is currently looking for models from all different walks of life, all different sizes and is encouraging people to embrace who they are naturally, not who we are expected to be because of our warped sense of beauty.

Personally, this has been very uplifting for me because I have a pretty rectangular/apple/tomboyish shape.  I don't have really noticeable curves and my rib cage would probably put an elephant to shame.  No joke; BUT, I also happen to have a three-octave plus singing range and can out volume most guys because of my lung capacity, I can dance, and I am in pretty good physical condition even though I don't work out that much.  It's just the way my body is, and to be honest for a long time that was hard to except.  Most of my friends were either tall and lanky and had naturally tiny waists or were so obsessively anorexic that the extra small I bought them for the bridesmaid dress they were to wear at my wedding almost fell off because they were so tiny.  I'm finally at a place in my life where I have excepted that though, and I have lost a healthy amount of weight and feel great about who I am and how I look.  I still have my boyish figure, even for being an average height, I tend to look more tomboyish/tiny/cute than anything (no sultry, sexy curvage for this chick), but you know what? I love it.  I'm learning to embrace a style that suits my personality and my body type and I feel confident and good about where I am. (The hair helps too :P Let me tell you when you have someone with a lion's mane like mine covering the top half of their body it makes for a really crazy looking chick and I absolutely LOVE it.) The bottom line is, it doesn't matter how small I'll get, because of the way I'm built, I will never have amazing curvy hips and I will always have to wear a dress one size larger to fit my ribs, but hey, I'm okay with it, because I am unique, and this website has really helped to cement that into my brain.

Our bodies are not meant to be one size fits all; there are many different and diverse builds and we shouldn't fight against that.  Did you know that size 6 these days is considered plus size, that means women with 25-26" waists or more could be considered plus size according to model standards.  To put that number in perspective, the following celebrities could (I say could again because each body type is different) be considered plus size models (I understand that this is just a number and different body proportions vary, but as a generic idea of how ridiculous this is I'm listing these names based off numbers).  Also, please understand that I don't think that plus size is bad at all or should be considered less attractive.  What I'm trying to convey is that we should not have to be defined by our waist size or bust size, something that is just that; a number.

Lauren Conrad
Scarlett Johansson
Angelina Jolie 
Demi Moore
Paris Hilton
Salma Hayek
Liv Tyler
Beyonce

And yes, there is a reason why I'm just linking these all the Wikipedia; I don't think that this post should be a "look at pictures of women to compare" thing, I think that it's important to understand the accomplishments of each person listed instead of being put into a category and nothing more based off a number.  It doesn't matter what their size is, they are all beautiful and extremely talented women.  As long as we are healthy people, and are happy with ourselves, the media has nothing on us, and I think that's very much what Healthy is the New Skinny is teaching us right now.

In the company's own words: "Healthy is the New Skinny is about fun, it's about fashion, it's about changing the world one girl, one woman, one body at a time.  Join us"

So yeah! Give a look and I hope you have great day!

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