can’t keep my mouth shut
I know I should leave well enough alone.
I know I should just keep my mouth shut.
But. This is me. I never do that. evvvvvvver.
So. Here goes. Deep breath. 3…2…1:
Point 1: I have said before and I will say it again that I believe that 75% of so-called healthy living bloggers are anything but healthy. Not even freaking close. And it breaks my heart. Like right smack in half.
I see bloggers all the time who are deathly thin through the pictures they post of themselves. And the only reason they are posting pictures is because they need validation from a community of people who won’t tell them how skinny they are and how worried they are like the people in their real life. So they post a picture and then get a thousand comments telling them how great the look, how hot their legs are, how jealous they are of them. Simply to reconfirm their belief that everyone in their real life is wrong.
And all I think is Really? You want to weigh 30 pounds under your ideal body weight? You want your veins to show because you have no muscle or fat to cover them? You want your husband to be able to wrap his entire hand around your thigh? Because here’s a little secret:
IT IS JUST AS DANGEROUS TO BE SEVERELY UNDERWEIGHT AS IT IS TO BE SEVERELY OVERWEIGHT.
A heart attack can kill someone who is too thin and over exercises and under eats just as easily as it can kill someone who is too fat with high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
It is dangerous. It is scary. And the blogging community just feeds it. Feeds the behavior and no one ever stands up and says STOP!
Point 2: Another thing I see all the time are “healthy” recipes that are so unhealthy. Using ingredients like low-sugar syrup, egg beaters, and Walden Farms products are not healthy! They are fake. Fake ingredients that your body doesn’t recognize. Fake ingredients that wreak havoc on your endocrine system. Eating a whole egg will not make you fat. I promise. A few tablespoons of real cream in your coffee will not make you fat. I promise.
When you take something out of a food product you have to replace it with something else. Something your body doesn’t recognize as food but as a chemical.
These recipes are posted by REALLY popular bloggers who have followers in the thousands (and more) and the recipes are not healthy. And neither are they. (see Point 1)
And I am sorry, but I feel like these people have some kind of responsibility! You KNOW you have a following. You KNOW people look up to you by the comments they leave you. You KNOW people heed your advice. So it bothers me that they ignore that responsibility and that they have young, desperate and impressionable people emulating them.
I can feel my heart breaking.
I have these opinions because I once was one of those people. One of those skinny bloggers who needed validation. One of those commenters who left comments about how amazing some emaciated blogger looked. But then I got a reality check.
I haven’t been without my struggles. But today I can say that I am healthy. I am 5’6 and weigh anywhere from 135-140. I am happy. I wear a size 6 (sometimes a 4, sometimes a 8 just depending on the store). So there…I laid it out there.
No one ever uses numbers because they claim they don’t want anyone to compare themselves to them or to trigger any kind of ED (eating disorder) response.
HELLO?!?!?! Do you not think your pictures trigger an ED response??? Or what about your WIAW post filled with hardly any food?? Do those not trigger ED responses?
I think if more bloggers used numbers then no one could comment on the 5’7 individual who weighs 105 about how hot she looks because we all know those are unhealthy numbers. We know it.
You know it.
So why don’t any of us ever say anything?!
I don’t know what I want out of this but I just felt like I needed to say something. It has been boiling in me for a while and I just needed to get it off my chest and maybe own up to my own responsibility.
Even if that means sharing my weight and size with the [blog] world.
What Kelly Said 
I agree with you Kelly!! I also feel that many bloggers only post positive things and that’s giving a wrong impression. Everyone has also negative things in life and hiding them won’t make them disappear. I like that you Kelly are open and honest about positive and negative things in your life!! And I am happy that you are in a health weight and living in a relaxed healthy way!! Lots of love to you!!
Paula
I know it ISN’T easy to break an unhealthy cycle, believe me. But I think what prolonged my cycle so much was all the positive affirmation I got from other bloggers. I just wish someone would have said…Kelly, you look like death and you aren’t attractive. You know?? But I think that learning the lesson on my own did help to get to this place…a really really good place.
This is WHY I love your blog so much! Honestly I have been thinking about that with some blogs that I have been reading. It’s pretty scary actually. I’m amazed. Either they THINK they are healthy, or they have been skewed by reading too many other blogs themselves. I’m SO glad you put this out there.
The only reason that I have stopped using all of that fake stuff (HONESTLY) is because I got pregnant. Not only do I not want to put that in MY body but I do NOT want it to go to my daughter.
It’s really funny too, because now I can see that eating ‘real’ food does not make you gain weight! There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with real syrup, or REAL sugar. It’s kind of sad that it took me this long to realize that, but I’m glad that I’ve finally come around. And the funny thing is that when you use REAL food you end up using less of it because there is more flavor- less REAL butter, less REAL sugar, less REAL syrup…but you get to enjoy the food more.
THANK YOU for posting this! Xo
It took me a long time to learn it too. Basically it was once I got hypothyroidism and my doctor explained how all the chemicals in that kind of food was really hurting my endocrin system. It was a HUGE wake up call!
So happy for you Holly! 🙂
Hope you don’t mind I linked this post on my blog! I think it’s really important for people to hear 🙂
Of course I don’t mind! Wow! Thanks Holly!
Amen, sister.
I always think about my grandparents and how they ate REAL food full of REAL fat and they all lived until they’re nineties. It helps put things in perspective for me.
Amen sister! Thank you for posting this. So true-all of it!!!!!!! I’m 5’6 and 135 and happy and you are beautiful and strong and I love your honesty!
I quit reading blogs that make me mad or annoy me. Not worth it!
You can’t say that enough. Unfortunately, these girls and women are hard to reach and don’t want to hear it. I tried once because it was a younger girl and broke my heart. I can’t stand WIAWs. I stopped reading most ‘healthy living’ blogs because I could see the disorders and hear the excuses. It made it seem normal (and anything else unhealthy) to eat only salad ‘beasts’, green ‘monsters’ and oatmeal for every.single.meal. Plus, I don’t want to see a photo of a smoothie every day. I’m tired of hearing about new diet fads. And people seeming convinced these are the ONLY (or healthy) ways to lose weight.
I may not be skinny, but I am better off now than I was when I didn’t eat enough or over-exercised. It isn’t easy losing weight and sometimes I feel like the only way is to runrunrun. But being healthy is more important than anything. And health isn’t on most of those blogs.
I agree Katie! I am ten thousand times more happy now than when I was only 105 pounds running 75+ miles a week. It wasn’t worth it. ANY OF IT. I usually avoid blogs on WIAW too because it is too shocking to read and too hard. I know most of these people will have to come to the conclusion themselves but it just breaks my heart…you know?
So true, and I agree with you 100%. I get really sad when I read some of the posts about what those girls are eating in a day, they can’t be happy.
Tears…hugs….but mostly- well said! Love you
agree with you all the way. i wonder the same thing so often and often think when i see daily posting of people’s food “that’s all you eat?”. I currently am pregnant, but pre-pregnancy I was anywhere from 120-125 pounds and am 5’3. I’m glad you got a wake up call and wish that many of these other bloggers would too!
I love your honesty! I’ve thought many times how unhealthy the “healthy living” blogging community is. It makes me sad, too.
I just love your honesty–we need more bloggers like you in the world, seriously!
This isn’t something that I publicly announce on my blog, but I’ve been in an outpatient eating disorder treatment facility for the past two years and I’m still a long ways from being “normal.” My weight has gone up to a healthier range but I’m still on the low end and the thoughts are definitely still there. It’s a hard struggle and I’ve found that eliminating a lot of blogs from my google reader really helped with my recovery. I’ve also shifted the focus of my blog from food/exercise to enjoying life and design/illustration related posts instead. It allows me to get my mind off of constantly thinking about foods, calories, and exercise.
We need to all work together to make healthy the normal and skinny/underweight a sign of help.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for posting this!
Laura…you are so amazing. I am emailing you….
Laura, I know that I am really late on commenting on this blog, but I too JUST got out of inpatient treatment about a month ago. I am at a healthy weight for my height. I am 5’9″ and 125lbs. Yes, that is my goal weight and I am so much happier than I was when I was admitted to the hospital at 80lbs. Unfortunately, when I was admitted to the hospital, I thought I was healthy and I was just doing what all of the “cool” bloggers did. Luckily for me, my parents intervened and saved my life. I am soooo happy now and I eat 3,000 calories a day and I am maintaining my weight. No one needs to just eat 1,000 calories a day.
Kelly, you are amazing and I am so glad that I found this post today. I had to go through my reader today and delete blogs that I used to think were “healthy”!
I am so so so happy for you!! Literally I am grinning from ear to eat right now! You are so amazing and I am so happy you are okay now!
Thank you Kelly!!! Its posts like these that warm my heart and make me think that maybe there is some people that still know what ‘healthy’ is;-) Working out 1-6 hours/day does not make you healthy–especially if you are eating egg whites, splenda and protein bars/smoothies/’healthy’ dips instead of real food for meals….as a reader I fell into those habits for a while, but I can buy 3-4 cartons of farm fresh eggs instead 1 carton of egg beaters;-)
I have posted on several healthy living blogs–that ‘hey maybe the reason you have stomach trouble is because you eat so much fake sugar (or eat too many vegis)’ and they reply ‘actually I don’t eat that many in a day’ ummmm you just did a WIAW and I can point out a minimum of 6 things that had spenda in them. I love looking at pictures, but why do I need to see you out running/in the locker room w/your shirt off, etc?!?! ok rant over.
I agree that a lot of the “stomach/gut issues” are caused by the food choices. When you undereat for a substaintal period of time it will cause bloat because you are malnourished. Plus fake sugar and massive vegetables will cause bloat as well. I think a lot of the blogger stomach problems would be alieviated by eating more fat (healthy fats) and less fake sugars. 100% agree.
Its sad because they blame glueten and dairy–which yes, people do have intolerance, but try eliminating the fake junk first instead of grains and milk/yogurt. I feel very tempted to link this to all the ‘healthy living bloggers’ out there–thankfully some would pass the test;-)
I agree that a lot of the gluten intolerance is a cover up to not eat certain foods they deem to be unhealthy. For sure. I know some healthy living bloggers are absolutely healthy, no doubt! Unfortunately they are in the minority. My only hope us that people start realizing it before something truly drastic happens.
I’m not the healthiest person, I’ll be the first to admit that, but I’m working on it. I’ll even put my height & weight out there, since you did: 5’0 150lbs. NOT ideal. Since starting P90X I’ve been paying more attention to the amount/type of sugar in the foods we eat. (I do use SF syrup on occasion – guilty. did I fuel the fire for this post?? haha) I found when I was using Sweet n Low in my coffee & iced tea regularly, I was eating WAY more than I needed to be. It seemed to trigger fake hunger pangs, which I almost always fell victim to. Now I’ll definitely take real sugar in small amounts over S&L.
Excellent post 🙂 I admire your honesty!!
YAY Melissa! I think you are adorable! I am not perfect…no one is. I still drink the occasional diet coke…hello fake sugar! But I try to use Stevia whenever I can control it. I still go to resturaunts and I can’t control what ingredients they use. But when I am in charge I strive to make healthier choices. Plus I just think that using a little of the real stuff goes much further than a ton of the fake stuff…you know??
When are we going to meet in person?! 🙂
hopefully soon!! 🙂
I have to agree with you. It breaks my heart as well to see this happening. Mostly because I really think that they have convinced themselves that they ARE being healthy. I don’t think they’re doing it knowingly or maliciously…unfortunately I think that’s just part of the disease. But unfortunately I think it does the same thing that all these crazy health magazines do – which is promote extremes all for the sake of “being thin.”
Couldn’t agree more on the “real” ingredients though! I’ll take real sugar over fake any day!
I am always in love with your eats! Everyone should eat like you do Cait! 🙂
And you’re right…I am sure some of these women don’t realize they aren’t healthy but instead truly believe they are. I know when I was super skinny I thought I looked good. It wasn’t until I got to a healthy place that I was able to look back and realize how unhealthy I really was.
WOW! Amazingly great post. Thank you thank you thank you.
This is so true, thanks for writing this! The first blogs I read were healthy living blogs. I still read those that I think are healthy for real or write about other topics that are interesting but I have dropped many of the others. I think you have a pack of bloggers who agree with you 100%! I hate all those fake ingredients. Real maple syrup, yes please!
I linked to your blog from Holly’s but I just wanted to say thanks for posting this! This information needs to be out there! I am SO TIRED of people telling me oh you cant eat this its got FULL fat in it…or you can drink this you need diet soda or tea. I just smile and go about my business but what people dont understand is that the fake sugar actually triggers your brain to want MORE sugar… so honestly I will have a coke every now and then but its just a small fountain one b/c they are the best! And if I eat something its always the full fat version of whatever I need, salad dressing/sour cream etc. If I want a burger for lunch I will eat one but most of the time I can never finish everything on my plate anyway. I just eat smaller portions and enjoy the small bites. I also make sure I work out and stay active. Its all about moderation and sadly most people have yet to realize that. I am also pregnant and agree with Holly I dont want my child to ingest these chemicals and I certainly shouldn’t be either. I will just teach my child to eat in moderation and keep active.
YES!!! Now I feel guilty for not saying any of this. I’ve struggled with what people are posting on these sights and why they’re posting the WIAW and self portraits for so long! I’m tired of reading about people that workout through injuries. It is such a horrible message and does no one any good. It is completely for self validation and definitely helps no one. Thank you for saying this Kelly!
Thanks Sarena! I agree about the working out through injuries…it is so dangerous and that is usually when I can tell it is an obsession. I mean sure no one likes to be injured and sidelined from exercise but the ones who just keep pushing and won’t quit worry me. Sometimes rest is good.
And I am glad I am not the only one who isn’t a fan of WIAW. I just think what may have started with good intentions has grown to be very unhealthy for some people.
I kind of feel the same way about the fitfluential stuff with all the #proof things going on. I feel like all the proof is for the wrong reasons. Ugh, I could go on for days. I really did appreciate you saying all of this out loud. I hope you’re doing well! I think about you often and hope things are moving in the right direction for you these days! xoxo
Oh my gosh don’t even get me started on fitfluential and #proof. DRIVES ME CRAZY! Especially because most of the fitfluential ambassadors are the worst offenders.
Thanks for thinking of me…I appreciate it.
Funny. I was one of the first fitfluential people back a year or so ago when it started. I recently got kicked out — they said it was because I didn’t participate enough. I guess I didn’t talk about it enough or say proof enough or WHATEVER. I sort of felt like it was selling out. Chad also talks a lot of shit on fitfluential and my “removal” from the program came at a very interesting time.
I am glad you aren’t a part of it Lisa!! It just isn’t healthy like I am sure it was originally intended.
I’ve been reading fewer HLBs lately, in part because I’ve felt myself starting to compare myself to others too much – in body image, food, fitness, etc. Some days I feel like I’m not living up to some weird standard that seems to have been set (by who, I have no idea!) and other days I think “Okay, working out 6-7 days a week hardcore is probably not the healthiest attitude either.” I think people have to figure out their own ways to balance everything. I’m still considered about 25 pounds overweight (according to my BMI) but I feel SO much healthier than I ever did when I was working out hardcore, being really strict about my diet, had a terrible history of bingeing and disordered eating and not taking care of myself!
I think you are doing great! And sometimes your BMI isn’t an accurate portrayal of health. I mean it doesn’t take into account how much lean muscle mass you have. It just takes into account how much how you weight and how tall you are but nothing else. I honestly never look at my BMI but focus rather on maintaining a healthy body fat percentage. And by healthy I mean one that allows me to still have normal periods and get pregnant. 🙂
I’m one of those readers that thinks, “wow, how is she so thin when she always shows pictures of fro-yo, snacks, chocolate, wine, etc.?” Sometimes I feel like maybe some bloggers are fabricating things to make people think they don’t have a problem when really, they are just nasty skinny. I’ve never been on a diet because it would last 5 minutes and then I’d dig into the bag of Doritos that I don’t even like! haha When I tell myself I can’t have something, I want it so much more!
Glad someone was ballsy enough to bring it out there!
It’s funny because the bloggers I love most are the ones that don’t sugar coat everything.
Oh I 100% agree with this. I think a lot of bloggers post a lot of unhealthy food in hopes that people will think they actually eat it. No way. No freaking way are they eating it.
Yes! And it’s a little sickening (and unfair) seeing these bloggers “eat” froyo every night of the week! haha mostly unfair because I’m lactose intolerant.
I think this post means a lot because it comes from you — someone who has been there. You are much more apt to see what these bloggers/women are going through.
I’ve been there and see the same things in many of these blogs. It’s why I rarely read healthy living blogs anymore. I don’t see them as “healthy” and to be honest, they don’t interest me.
I was 5’4 and 125 lbs before the pregnancy. Now I’m at 155 lbs. I am so thankful that seeing 155 doesn’t bother me. I am not even worried about the weight when it’s over.
It’s great that we are both at much healthier places.
Thanks Lisa! We have both come such a long way!!! Seriously. I am proud of you too and I know that you totally get this post. And you are the cutest (and most fit) pregnant woman I have ever seen! 🙂
I know it’s been said before but Thank you for putting that out there. I don’t comment much but this just really resonates with me. I recently found all these HLB’s out there that everyone is talking about. I am so glad that I didn’t find them a few years earlier when I was getting into running and eating healthier… it totally would of messed with my head. I’m a happy and healthy size 6 and aim to eat healthy food (not low fat/sugar/carb stuff) and be physically strong. What kills me about these blogs is the following of girls out there trying to be just like them. It’s as bad as the super skinny models posted all over magazines. Anyways, I read your blog because of your honesty so keep it coming! 🙂
This is honestly the greatest blogging post I have ever read and I 100% agree.
Thanks Hollie!
I totally appreciate your honesty. Way to keep it real!
Hi Kelly! I’m new to your blog but I’m so glad that I found you site. I agree 100% with you. I myself had an eating disorder so I can tell from looking at people’s pictures or what they eat if that’s normal or not. I often stumble upon blogs (especially for WIAW) where people eat so little. I’m not sure whether they intentionally do not include everything they ate (but then what’s the point of posting in the first place?) or whether they just don’t eat more. I sometimes feel bad for honestly posting everything I ate because it seems like I eat soooo much more than most other bloggers.
I agree that’s it’s important for “healthy living bloggers” to realize that they have young girls reading their blogs and taking note of everything they do and eat.
I can’t say that the recipes I post are always 100% healthy but I try to use real ingredients and also try my best to balance out healthy recipes with dessert recipes because I personally feel that living a healthy lifestyle and eating dessert is possible and is totally normal.
Great post and thank you for being so honest!
Kelly, This is great. You seem so much happier and healthier today and that makes me so happy. I agree, wholeheartedly, with this entire post. Having been someone who has struggled with an ED and then the lingering vestiges of disordered thinking, I used to be the “healthy” girl drinking diet soda and relying on fake sugar and egg beaters.
It wasn’t until I (also) was diagnosed with endocrine problems that I started eating whole real food and completely gave up the shit. You know, egg yolks are ok! Butter is amazing. And I feel great getting rid of that fake poison.
Anyway, thanks for writing this!
Thanks Pen! I am so glad you are a in a healthy place too. 🙂
Hi Kelly, haven’t ever commented, I think your blog is great, honest and thought provoking. I think this post is amazing and I can’t believe I’ve never come across one like this before!? As a reader, as I browse blogs, more cooking ones, I shudder at so many women’s idea’s of healthy meals and workout routines and I think you are soo right, these blogs are a security blanket for eating and severe body image problems. I used to be a diet coke Addict ( no joke!) and have had stomach probs for years (allergies too) but it took naturopaths and nutritionists to be like that stuff is poison!! World of difference.. now I just have one on occasion. The fake stuff is baad news! I use stevia sometimes now, but I wonder if its just as bad sometimes?? Oh and you are so right that numbers would keep things Real, food and skinny pics do Not. I find myself wondering how some women call themselves healthy because they do not look a healthy weight, and they probably are not! Seeing the numbers would make it obvious.
Thanks Shira! I feel a lot of people think exactly what I wrote but it can be nerve racking to put it out there. I have always prided myself on being really honest and I just finally felt like this was a post I needed to write. I agree that the fake stuff is bad bad news. I read some scary statistic a few weeks ago that more than 1,000 food products are added to the market every single year! That is crazy to me…because all those new “food” products are just fake processed crap that we just shouldn’t eating as part of a regular diet. As a once in a while treat? Sure. But it shouldn’t be our every day staples.
This post is actually very timely with something I have been struggling with when it comes to blog reading. I enjoy the community as well as engaging with readers that happen to come my way. As a dietitian, I want to help everyone I cross paths with (annoying I know)! It’s very hard for me to read and comment on blogs that I can clearly see are struggling with some form of disordered eating. I’ve recently had to just pull back from commenting all together because it was such a battle for me. Professionally I feel like I should help, personally I know I need to butt out!
I just can’t even read blogs like that. I know everyone has their own preferences, and some people like to see every.single.thing someone ate in a day, but I think it’s boring and it brings out a bad side in me. I can get really obsessive about food and it’s just a bad path for me to go down. I also get really uncomfortable when someone is too thin, so again, I just avoid it. Good for you for calling it out!
This.is.awesome. I’ve just bookmarked your blog! You’ve said everything I’ve been thinking while reading these “heathy” living blogs. If you think your problem is that serious enough to tell the world about it, why not just seek professional help? These issues are no joke and if they’re doing it for recognition, that’s the wrong attention in my opinion! Thanks Kelly!
Kelly,
Thanks for putting this out there. I am VERY overweight and most “healthy” living blogs just confuse and discourage me. Is that really all you are eating? Oatmeal again? Is that what “healthy” really looks like? I have pulled back quite a bit because it tends to derail me. It’s tough enough losing 100+ pounds without thinking that’s how I should be doing it.
Thank you for your honesty and for your willingness to post this.
I am glad you are second guessing some of those blogs!! Healthy living is about eating foods that will support your body, metabolism, and organ systems. Also equally important is eating the correct amount. Too little food AND too much food cause problems for the balance of our bodies. I commend your commitment to lose weight and makes healthy choices! Good job!!! Keep me posted!
Sorry, late response– but YES. I am so with you on this. I’ve cut my blog reading WAYYYYY back, because I realized that I was reading too many blogs that made me, 1) feel inadequate or, 2) look at the blogger, look at the comments, and think…WHY IS NO ONE SAYING ANYTHING?!? So many blogs seem to be all about people kissing the blogger’s ass and praising them for habits that are, frankly, disturbing and unhealthy. You see it with food, but you also see it with overexercising. I *CRINGE* when I read from bloggers who are obviously injured and yet still putting in 8 mile runs every day. They’re putting their health in jeopardy, and that’s just stupid, but what’s even stupider is the amount of praise they’re getting for it from the community.
Okay. Rant over. Thanks Kelly. 🙂
I love you. That is all.
Hi Kelly! This is the greatest post…ever. I followed your old blog when I was developing an ED. I was so “inspired” by your thin arms and high mileage…I thought that if you did it and were “healthy” that I could get there someday, too. Nowadays, I am fully recovered and when I discovered your new blog I was SO excited. You are such a truly inspiring woman and I now I read your blog for all of the RIGHT reasons. Many, many cheers to you. Thank you. 🙂
Oh I am so glad you are in such a healthy place now and I HATE that I ever helped contribute to your ED. But I am also very grateful that we are both healthy and strong women now! Love to you!!
It would not be fair to say that you contributed to my ED! Don’t put that on yourself! It was all me…my choice to look at blogs, my choice to run and eat like the authors of those blogs. I was only trying to convey how excited I was to find your new blog and to read it every time you post! Your strength and balance is so real and inspiring. Thank you!
Thank you friend!
Preach on lady! I am relatively late to the HLB genre and I started reading the smaller blogs first (fueled by interest in Raw Foods). Only after getting into the blog world did I discover the ‘big bloggers’ and I was so confused as to why people read those blogs. I still am. I much prefer the smaller bloggers who are keeping it real and living in the real world. I, like you, worry about the impressionable readers and also, like you, get mad at the facade of it all.
I struggle with WIAW. I liked participating in it at first, but then found myself thinking too much about what I ate on the days that I was photographing. I’ve pulled back a bit. I want to keep my blog real and present my true self, but I’m not always sure how to do that. Cue the deep thinking….
I love, love, love your blog!
I always love the WIAW you do for your kiddos. Ha! Is that weird? I love seeing all the healthy foods you feed them and how much they enjoy it. As someone whose other hot issue is childhood obesity I am always curious as to what people feed their kids. As far as WIAW for adults? Not so much.
I love that you said how you felt. Also you are very brave to post this so thank you!
I completely agree with you on this.
From someone who has suffered from an eating disorder, WIAW and posting photo’s or telling people how much they weigh does feed an eating disorder and if you have chosen to be a health blogger it is your responsibility to be aware of these issues and guide readers to be HEALTHY not guide them into a mental illness.
I also found that bloggers telling people exactly how many hours they spend at the gym and saying they feel guilty for having a rest day is just as harmful. I found myself comparing my exercise routine to theirs and had to snap myself out of it and stop reading their blog.
I am glad you were able to recognize it and I am super happy that you are in a much better place today!!
Can I just say you are amazing for posting this! Just today I wrote a post about how I need to change things because I am stuck in this disordered world. There are so many blogs I read and I just ache for them because you can tell how deeply “sick” they are. And you know what, honestly I am one of them. At least I realize this now, and I am making the changes. Even though it is so hard. I know people read my blog and think that I am sick and need help, and I do. I think being honest about it on my blog, that this is not normal will hopefully help people. Or maybe not, who knows. Thank you for this post!
The biggest step is realizing it. GOOD FOR YOU LISA!!! I am super proud of you right now. You can do it. You can break the cycle! Hang in there!
Hello! Just found your blog, and I have to say that I agree. I have participated in a few of the WIAW, but I make sure i’m honest, etc! I don’t photograph everything I eat, but will say “hey, i ate chocolate covered pretzels!” and it’s not the end of the world 🙂 I think everything is in moderation, and I give into cravings, sometimes eating whole eggs, others egg beaters. I do agree that a lot of the healthy bloggers do eat quite small portions or what seems like not a lot of food. It is concerning, specially when it seems like they workout a lot. I think overall, eating/working out is in moderation! I refuse to beat myself up over wine or pizza, but think that people should listen to their body. I personally shy away from heavy carb lunches because they make me tired at work the rest of the afternoon, but still eat them at other times. Again, it’s about learning what works for your body, and being proud of what you got!! 🙂 Thanks for this good post and reminder!