The Diet Police and their minions

I guess you can tell from the topic that this is about weight and the fat shamers.

Now for all you skinny girls who can eat a house and still retain your slender figure please look away this topic is not for you, and yes we curvy girls all hate you, but for people like me who have been struggling with weight issues for years now I know some of you will relate in some ways to this topic.

Diet!!!

I miss the days where I could waltz around in my size ten figure without a care in the world.

 Life was an amazing mesh of chicken, ice cream and chocolate regularly, the term diet was not in my vocabulary.

The closest thing I did to living healthy was the interesting Saturday workouts in college, we would set off to the Unilag sports center in gangs of six, with our tight shorts and tight tops and pretend to run marathons and do aerobics but in reality we were actually just trying to meet cute boys, (don’t judge me I was still a  teenager ), of course it didn’t help that later in the evening we would cram ourselves into a taxi and head to the nearest eatery  in Surulere to stuff our tummy  with all sorts of pastries, so when I suddenly ballooned from a size 10 to a large size 12 going on 14 people started getting worried, everybody but me though , my friends who were a lot older than me started throwing the word diet around.

I still was not sold on the whole dieting idea, the truth was that i had met  ladies in University who would literally starve themselves all day living on salad and water, some even took more drastic measures of sealing their teeth shut or drinking all sorts of herbal concoction and weight loss pills to lose weight, This was an extremely dangerous practice, most of them broke down, fell ill and the few who had success with this drastic measures almost tripled in size six months down to line when they fell back into their bad habits. Diet nah it was not for me, so what my jeans could not fit anymore, we bought new ones from better looking stores it took me about two years after college to reacquaint myself with my old arch enemy called Dieting.

I was now a comfortable size 14 and I decided I would have to do something about my weight before I morphed into a pig, so I turned to my friends, I was introduced to all sorts of diets, all protein diet, all salad diet, fruits and vegetable diet, the only beans diet, the 80/20 rule diet and the list went on and on.

Lawd have mercy no wonder I ran, I could not give up the poison my sweet tooth craved, so instead I looked for an easier alternative A.K.A Shape wear, that of course only further aggravated the weight situation and before I could open my eyes I had grown to a size 16 and that ladies and gentlemen became my wakeup call.

The Diet Police

When you enter into your thirties you realize a few things about yourself, first of all your conversations with your female friends is  gradually going to switch to speaking about kids, husband and work (All the time) insert rolling eyes smiley here,  secondly you are never going to be the same size you were when you turned heads at 18, thirdly your mouth, your stomach and your weight was no longer your own, friends and even sometimes acquaintances were going to start policing every single thing that went into your mouth.

Ok let’s dial back, so I’ve hit my absolute worst when it comes to my weight size and I decide I am going to change my lifestyle, start exercising , stop taking sugar, cut down on ice cream and sweets and force myself to fall in love with fruits and vegetable. After thirty years of over indulging in poison you would think the little progress I made would earn me a pat on my back …no …no I can go five days without a slice a bread when I want to indulge in toast the whole town comes down.

It’s become a free for all diet consultation bonanza, this is not just about me, I have a friend who has become extremely overweight after having kids and sometimes i cringe when people start offering her dieting tips. The advice pours in harshly, brutally and without empathy for the receiver. The oversabi advisers shout at the top of their lungs telling her how she is not helping herself and should do this and that and this to lose weight.Its embarrassing, i know people are trying to help in their own way but sometimes they unintentionally end up fat shaming  someone who is already struggling with confidence issues.

In conclusion an overweight person knows he or she is overweight , there is no need to scream when you see them or shout at them that they need to lose weight, now I know some people may seem like a lost cause, cramming fat into their mouth like an endless pit, but in trying to help that persons situation let’s not make them feel worse by fat shaming them, words have power, so they were not supposed to eat that burger instead of scolding them like a two year old why not suggest they may need to exercise longer t burn the calories they just took, sometimes when we are at a loss on how to help them lets point them towards professionals.

Dear Diet police you know the quote “the police is your friend” well if you guys keep up with the same aggressive attitude you just might push that person over the edge, lets fight against fat with love and determination not aggression …that’s never a good look.