skinny does not = healthy

This post will probably seems like I am pointing out the obvious, but I gotta put out there my take on the weird world we live in, where some children die from starvation, and yet here in America we waste food eveyday. In some "third world" countries there are people who look very similar to some models on the runways because they are both starving.

I want to break down some of the images that we see everyday, and subconsciously put onto ourselves (skinny girls in the magazines of the how to loose 15lb in a day articles). One of my mentors, and an amazing designer Lucie Beauchemin once said to me that skinny does not equal healthy. This was coming from a women who is skinny, probably because she works so much that she is always running around at work, and never has time to eat. Whether its your body type and you were just born like that, or you skip meals, or the drugs being skinny does not at all mean that you are healthy. On the flip side being severely over weight usually means you are unhealthy or your habits could lead to health problems down the line. The reason I wanted to write on this is my weight (like most women) has fluctuated, and I've seen the way people treat me and judge, based on weight and usually it's kinda off. Whenever I was at my most unhealthiest, not sleeping, not eating right, but had lost a couple of pounds people would complement me on how "healthy" I looked.

Weight among women is weirdly a taboo subject ( if taboo means people hate to talk about it yet its always talked about) where some women refer to diets as the "d" word. When in reality everyone is on a diet, diet is just what you eat some people are on the I.D.G.A.F. diet (i don't give a f*ck and I eat whatever crap I want or can afford) this is usually my demographic: broke college students with no time who were raised by single mothers who don't always have time to cook. But we all know that its healthy to eat your veggies.

Anyway we learn about anorexia and bulimia in school you learn about it, but I never really was concerned with the issue I always said I couldn't understand how somebody could do that, cause I love food to damn much. Until I saw a friend of mine suffering from it. I saw that every time she ate a meal she had to use the bathroom (to yak her food up), and she basically was starving herself.

This is extreme but all women think about body image and we all know why, and i know I'm guilty of skipping meals thinking that because I ate a lot the day before that it would be healthy to not eat. Or the even worse thing (more unhealthy) to do not eat all day (hella busy) and then eat one big meal at night. The other day I went to an event while I was at school in the design gallery and there was free food, me and my homegirls immediately got in line to get some, and as girls passed us by (all of who we knew so it wasn't like they were talken mess) they jokingly said "fat ass" and things of that nature to some of my friends who were helping themselves. I didn't think nothing of it at the time, I hadn't eaten anything all day and it was about 8pm, but later the situation kinda had me thinking about what is thrown at us, as women. So anyways I have never viewed being thicker as being bad, probably cause I was raised in Oakland and girls with junk in the trunk get more attention in a good way then not. And the people that raised me. But I noticed that as soon as I moved to the LA area that that everyone seems to be trying to be hella skinny.

When my homegirl Katiana came down and stayed with me she was doing a cleanse, which her mama (who is really into healthy food) didn't want her to do. I did it for about a day and didn't stick with it, just didn't really have my head right for it.

Anyway Beyonce did it to get skinny for Dreamgirls so now people call it the Beyonce diet. But B herself has said she would never recommend it too anyone (unless there bout to film a movie) and that she gained all the weight back. But then there other people that swear by it, do it every year as a healthy way to clean out their system.

So like everyone knows, but doesn't nessasarily practice, eating right, and being active is good for you. But skinny does not equal healthy. I ask you(probably the one person that reads this) to not waste food cause thats just rude, and that's it- cause I'm tired of writing about this sh*t, oh yeah and this post was talking about when people try to be skinny to be vain not to be confused with the dope album by that talented man Do Dat called The Skinny...