Let’s Talk Body Shaming In The Media

Google took a post of mine down from my ads, my google business page and my maps. I say this to address concerns when it comes to health and self discipline.

Let me explain. I have a female client who is a model. That’s her job. She’s healthy. She just wanted to lose some weight and shape up. We took 3 months to transform her physique, with visible progress of her working her butt off. She had to change her diet, drink less alcohol, eat more wholesome foods, fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, greens and lots of water.

Anyone who has drastically improved their diet and started a structured coached exercise program knows how gruelling this can feel. This alone is spartan hard, especially for a lady who has the challenge of also looking after her hormones and slimming at the same time. On top of this she trained with 3, 4 and sometimes 5 x a week with me – I train people effectively and strictly. No sloppy form at all! I won’t allow it.

She’s very proud of her transformation as am I. 2 years ago we posted a 3 month body transformation where I helped my client feel proud, be healthy, look beautiful, better her mindset with proper, prescribed exercise and nutrition to nourish her mind, her body and ultimately her spirit.

Body Positivity Has Gone Too Far

Here is my confusion, 4 weeks ago after having this picture uploaded proudly displaying her incredible transformation, Google emails me to notify me that my picture has been removed. I’ve been reading the papers via the Web, the sun, the mirror, the daily mail, the daily express, all brands of papers that feature shock articles. I’m sorry but this has gone too far. The pattern I have noticed is this – I’m seeing articles where beautiful healthy women are getting into lean, active shape, bettering themselves physically and mentally, resulting in the public shaming of these women, saying they are narcissistic, toxic and vain simply because they have focused on their health?

I’m comprehending at which point we as humans thought it acceptable to brand ourselves as professional psychologists, as if we are even qualified to use these words loosely. When did everyone suddenly become qualified in psychotherapy? I’ve never heard of psychotherapists who willingly shout these condemnations to people in public.

The other challenge is why are we discouraging healthy hard work and discipline. To flip this over there is a shop in Regent Street called body positive. The ladies’ body compositions in both mannequin and the real life poster pictures of women displayed in this shop are not physically healthy. I don’t believe in shaming others at all. I am all for positivity. True positivity is openness to our greatest selves and to the greatest selves of others. If we only perceive one group, the individual or a group outside of ourselves to be positive there is false information occurring. I believe in encouragement, I do not believe in delusion. I have respect for all men and all women whether they are in shape or not. I’m human and my greatest desire is for men and women to be healthy.

My story is that I lost two grandfather’s at a very young age. One to diabetes and the other to a heart attack. My sister is 5 years older than me, she faced weight gain and diabetes and hardships. I would never lie to my sister and say she’s doing fine. I would never even advise her unless she came to ask me for my opinion and knowledge.

My question is why is it ok to have a picture of a woman smiling and overweight on the high street but it’s not ok to have a model who’s healthy and worked hard and made social sacrifices and personal sacrifices and discipline to get healthy?

We need to be ready, guys and girls. If your body composition isn’t healthy for your heart and internal health, we have to address this issue and put positive messages in optimal health. Sure, be happy when you are unhealthy as long as you decide to get healthy at some point. Let’s not have double standards here, if you are unhealthy it’s glorified and if you are super fit and healthy suddenly you are labelled a narcissist, a toxic person and a fake – and then have your pictures taken down.

Lets get people healthy and encourage good mental, physical and lifestyle health.