by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com
We have talked a lot about being Beautiful and Sexy at any size which I do believe each one of us can be. But there is another perhaps more important point that we should also consider: Can we also be fit at any size?
This article that I read at Time.com set me thinking along those lines. The article showed a picture of a baseball player who would clearly be termed as plus size and that really made me think that a professional athlete depended on this fitness; surely he would have to be fit in order to be doing what he was doing? You can’t be a professional athlete unless you are fit and this rather fits the premise that you can be fit at any size, as long as you are active, take regular exercise, and eat sensibly; in other words make the effort to be fit and healthy.
The article also talks about Nikki Blonsky, who stars in the movie Hairspray, who along with her co stars tries to spread the message that thin is not necessarily happy and that good health and fitness should be the determining factors for happiness and for loving your body.
The point here is that nature and our own genes dictate whether each of us is going to be tall, short, stocky, skinny or just average. Hormones also play a major role in the amount of weight we carry. As one expert put it, “each individual has a weight range of about 20 to 30 pounds dictated by our genes. It’s almost impossible to go above or below. One researcher likened it to holding your breath. Eventually you can’t, the urge is so strong.”
That makes a lot of sense to me. I can’t really change my IQ (though I can train myself to be more proficient at certain tasks), similarly I really can’t run a lot faster that I am genetically programmed to. Perhaps if I am really very fit and healthy, I could run at a good speed, but I know I am never going to be able to win an Olympic Gold for it. Also I am a wonderful singer and hopeless at Math; that is impossible to reverse!
In matters of IQ as well as the weight we try to shed, we have our own personal range or limitation. We each of us get to a point when the body will refuse to lose any more weight, where the body cannot sustain any more loss. Your metabolism slows down not allowing it. This is also true if you are trying to gain an inordinate amount of weight, the metabolism will speed up and not permit you to gain weight beyond that set point.
Hardly any woman thinks she looks good in a swimsuit.
