Don’t Compare

I have stumbled upon a provocative, time-suck Pinterest board that I felt I had to share with everyone this morning. Thank you Jen Yates from http://www.epbot.com.

http://pinterest.com/indyink/don-t-compare-yourself-to-celebrities/ is the place. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! It may be mildly NSFW, but I have yet to scroll to something that wasn’t. Just a lot of bikinis n’ such.

<rant>

See, I have a bone to pick with fashion magazines, and they don’t come into the house because of they image they project, not to mention the consumerism they promote. I generally have a hard time with all the images on the Internet of women who are “perfectly fit”, no flaws, skinny as a matchstick, and fake looking. Digitally altered women (and men!) are everywhere in the media now, and I have always maintained that it promotes poor body image, unrealisitc expectations, and a warped sense of what humans actually look like. It seems like it is normal to make people look so different than what they naturally look like. As if what they really look like is so abhorent, it won’t sell, and must be smoothed into oblivion.

&$#* that. Give me freckles, wrinkles, tan lines, pooches, scars and pores. Give me cellulite and jiggle and those little tiny hairs that cover the body. give me short, and tall, thick and thin.

Give me real.

Yes, it is up to me to promote good body image in my children, and ignore the images bombarded at us from everywhere. Yes, it is up to me to educate them on what a truly fit and healthy person looks like, bumps and all. But…

I do not appreciate the message all these ‘Shopped images send to our children (and to me!). I do not like that fashion and high-end catalog models have to look like they never eat, or female fitness models have their six packs erased because they look too “manly”. I truly dislike seeing waists with ribs removed, arms lengthened, necks stretched, and thigh gaps that look unnatural. I abhor seeing fashion models made to look skinnier than they already are.

So, this Pinterest board is kind of a YES! Don’t compare yourselves to the Photoshopped, altered and smoothed images you see. Just don’t.

</end rant>

Dear Food Blog…

I know you are wondering why I never visit anymore.

I hear your cries of “look at my new recipe! See my sumptuous pictures! Revel in the deliciousness!” and I tear myself away, my heart breaking, the unread count growing higher and higher in my RSS reader.

Its not that I don’t still love you, I do. Oh believe me, I do.

But right now, I can’t look at you, without feeling overwhelmed by all the problems inherent in me. I get nervous cooking and eating your recipes. Calories, fat, fibre, the dreaded carbohydrate… All give me pause, make me doubtful, which makes me cranky. can I eat that? Will it hurt me?

I can’t have a lot of the things you show me anymore, and it is hard to look through your bountiful pages without feeling bereft, grieving for the culinary life I used to have. I know I’ll get over it, and once again we will be happily planning, cooking, baking, and omnomnoming along together. Just in a different way.

But, until I figure this *%@$ out, I need to stay away, and halt the negativity every time I spy a delectable recipe I would love to try, knowing it isn’t healthy for me anymore, even tinily portioned for benefit.

I just need time. Forgive me.

Love,

Your newly Diabetic fan