Skinny No More!

Not too long after writing her non-diet book Unlimited, Fitness Trainer and all around Badass Jillian Michaels said that she did not know if she would write another diet or exercise book. "The information in my first two books is still current. I don't have anything else to say." She had also mentioned that publishing the exact same information in a new book with Skinny in the title would sell over a million copies easily. So she did. Her new book Slim For Life is a list of tips and tricks to lose weight and get skinny. It reads like a greatest hits of the advice she has already given through her books, podcasts, and television appearances. Even her Biggest Loser cohort, Bob Harper seems to have embraced the "Skinny" movement. His two new books out, The Skinny Rules and Jumpstart to Skinny, embrace the movement. Though I absolutely love the awareness and the back story to The Skinny Rules (the Skinny Rules are based on observations a Biggest Loser contestant's husband made while she was away at the ranch), this obsession with Skinny is unhealthy.

I get it though. The word "skinny"triggers something in our minds. It is similar to the subliminal advertising used in theaters when they flash a picture of popcorn. All of a sudden I want popcorn. Girls want their strapless dresses. I myself would never take my shirt off at the pool because of the beer belly. Skinny evokes images in our brains. That being said, I have friends who are naturally skinny yet unhealthy. For years I held all my weight in my gut this was me. I wasn't wide. The doctor once told me I was carrying around a 50 lb bowling ball under my shirt. I was on the verge of a heart condition. It would knock me down. There are also heavy athletes. I don't like the term "skinny" because it does not necessarily mean fit. You can be skinny and not tone. Skinny but lazy. Skinny but diseased and still eating yourself to an early grave!

Instead, let us reach the goal of being fit. Let us eat with intention. Let us not be unable to carry out simple daily tasks like squatting down to pick up our kids, take out the trash, or put up Christmas lights. Simply because we chose to live a sedentary lifestyle. We should not let work shifts behind desks and caged in cubicles confine us from going out and enjoying life. Perhaps women (and men) would not struggle with so many eating and mental disorders (like a poor body image and dismorphia) if we concentrated our efforts on promoting being fit, rather than bringing down anyone not skinny.

Skinny is often attributed to pure diet. Therein lies the problem. Fit refers to diet and exercise, referring to a well rounded lifestyle. If you are fit then it reflects in all areas of life with success. Being skinny refers to deprevation, doing without. Being fit refers to a life of nourishment. You are not worn out of skinny- like a picture of someone with ribs and bones showing. Fit shows muscles showing. Fit shows you have created the body you want. Fit means you do not settle for mediocre. You do not expect things to come to you, you go out and take them!