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I'm 13/f and I'm having trouble with my body image. I used to be overweight (about 2 years ago) but then my mom helped me get into a better diet and now I'm not SO overweight and fat. Over the past few months I've been starting to eat sweets here and there but I'm still exercising a lot. The feeling of "Oh my gosh I've gotten so fat" suddenly came on in the past month. I have even gained weight and I'm really, really close to being over weight according to the weight chart. I will admit that I'm one of those girls who says "I'm fat" in front of my friends and especially my mom and expect to hear "oh no you're not." So when I said "I've gained a lot of weight!!! GOSH I'm starting to get so fat again..." to my mom she didn't say anything like "you're over reacting...you look just fine." She simply said "well, you're going to have to work on that." I was shocked =O I couldn't believe that even she had started to notice (and in a way agreed with me) and now I'm starting to wonder if other people notice. So...I got really depressed about it...and said to myself "if I could just be skinny I'd feel so much better about myself..." I hate thinking that the only way to get thin is to just not eat. I also realize I'm putting how I LOOK in front of my HEALTH and it's bothering me that I am ignoring what becoming a semi-anorexic would do to my health. I'm not exactly "huge" but I do have plenty of extra pounds I want to get rid of. At the moment I'm really upset because I don't know what to do. When I talked to my mom she just said "well, you need to get back into eating healthy" but I am and it ISN'T WORKING. She also says "You are also over reacting about becoming anorexic. you're being such a drama queen." HELLO! I'M SERIOUS HERE!! and i don't plan on becoming skin and bones. I really need some advice on what to do...I'm worrying myself by the way I'm thinking! =[

I could easily tell you "Is how much you weigh the most important part of you? Everyone is beautiful in their own way." However much it may be true, most people don't take their own advice, and think that way until they start looking at themselves. lso, lots of people just say that if they want to get a 5 without doing any work.

Don't listen to the user below that said "being overweight can't hurt you and you'll grow out of it." Being overweight is very dangerous to your health, and unless you do something about it now, you're going to grow up overweight. I should know---my mom is a pharmacist. The majority of overweight women have always been overweight---but if you take certain precautions now, you'll be fine.


I don't know how much you weigh, and whether you're truly overweight or not. Either way, it's pretty clear that you're having some body image problems and it's preventing you from having a realistic self-image. So what I propose is that you get into shape, do a bit of sensible weight loss, and maybe you'll be able to see yourself in a more sensible way.

However, you're not going to get rippling muscles overnight. It's going to take weeks--maybe months---to start noticing muscle.

Get at least 2 hours of cardiovascular exercise (meaning exercises that make you breathless and send your heart thumping) a week. This does not have to be a sport, though not discouraged. You can dance to your favorite music, bike to the grocery store......so on and so forth. Crunches and pushups aren't going to make you lose weight.


Don't plan on eating ANY junk food until you've gotten into shape. Ditto with red meat, butter, whole milk, bagels, cheese, avocados, anything made with a noticeable amount of oil, or any excessive amount of carbohydrates or protein. Definitely no on the deep oil-fried Twinkies.

For your source of protein, eat lots of nuts (the amount of fat won't hurt you), chicken, fish and soybeans. The last one sounds gross, but seriously, once you steam soybeans, it's really good. Trust me on this one. A great, healthy dinner could be chicken soup and fruit for dessert. Now, I don't mean Campbell's Chicken Soup. I mean REAL soup. When you get home from school, boil about 2 pounds of chicken bones WITH THE MEAT STILL ON and let it cook under low heat for a few hours. This will give you a nice chicken bouillon. Spoon out the oil on the surface, put in a few stalks of cilantro and enjoy! Feel free to add black sesame oil and noodles. Sesame oil is the only kind of oil that's good for your cardiovascular system. You can find the oil and chicken bones at any Chinese food store.

For carbohydrates, eat whole wheat bread, corn, potatoes and pasta. Make this food category your last priority.

Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Don't eat too many plums/prunes, though. You'll get a horrible case of diarrhea.


Happy eats!

-Loma

PS. Congrats on being the first 13-year-old I've seen in ages to use proper grammar, spelling and punctuation =]

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