In an effort to not have challenging conversations in this day and age
It's like when you do you like whatever's best for you. But then what if best for you is actually harmful to yourself and/or others
My Health is a top priority in my life
You never know how bad you feel
Until you start feeling better than you've ever felt in your life and I've been on both
ends of the spectrum and damn it's very different to now being like
Really focused on the mind body and soul like really having all parts just as equal as the other
For me, I am a cancer survivor
And so my entire life now is about making sure that I have a life, you know to continue
So yeah
I was diagnosed with lymphedema at age 3 which affects the circulation
For me through my legs and feet. So health for me has always
been at the top of my mind because if I don't take care of my body like my I could have an
amputated foot or leg
So it's nothing that I play around with all of my family almost has suffer from diabetes, heart disease and stuff like that
So that's why I'm extra conscious about my health because I don't want to come down with any of those diseases
I have a regular workout routine
I've been working out consistently since I was 19 years old
I used to work out two hours a day, but then I realized that's way too long
so now my workout session that would wait for about 45 minutes and then
The rest is stretching and cardio and I spent a lot of time stretching because it allows me to get in the zone
Kind of like a meditation of sorts
It's all mental, like, I go to the gym or workout or do something kind for my body in forms of movement every day
Because it keeps me sane. Like if I don't go there then I feel like something's missing. And I get a little bit depressed
Singing all by myself back there.
I was going to the gym regularly every day, for like, six months and then my life shifted
I lost my father a lot of things happened in my life that umm
threw off my whole routine and so the point when when I was going to the gym so regularly I felt like my brain
felt happier like I've gotten that feeling back in other ways
I have no desire in me to change my body in any way. I like my buckets a little bigger. No, no, not at all
See this is where we're gonna get because I will tell you not every big person wants to be small
I am conscious about what I eat
My mom had me in Weight Watchers in junior high. Like so my relationship with food and what I'm putting into my body
has been like
completely- can we curse? Fucked up like since the very beginning.
I've had a severe sugar addiction since I was a kid and like the binge eating like it makes you feel like
everything- I can't have this. This is an enemy. So when I see it, like you have it
I'm like, oh, I want to eat it all. Every day, I wake up. I have a green smoothie
I'm always very conscious of like what I'm putting into which I think is- I'm going to say the controversial statement. I think is something
that people would never
think is true based off the size of my body
There's so much studies that are coming out like in terms like your microbiome, like the microbiome that you have like you can literally eat
green smoothies and eat like everything you're supposed to be eating,
and not lose the weight because we have an imbalance in your microbiome and like and then people who are thin,
they're just really thin but they eat McDonald's every day
But they don't realize is how much they're clogging their arteries and they die of heart attacks more than quote-unquote big people.
I received negative feedback about my body growing up
I would have people, like some family members be like
"Oh, you look a little heavier than you did last year" and then other family members that were a lot more direct like
"When are you going to lose the weight?" and it's been like that
I would say my whole life and then we got to a point where I was getting compared to my little sister who's like
beautiful and thin and it's like- it is so hard not to compare yourself to other people
It is so hard to have a healthy relationship with food and with fitness and just with other people and it became so difficult
to break out of that and to really love who I am inside.
My stepmom
would take, like, if I had a wrapper of chips like in my room like she would put it on top of like,
my dresser and say like "I'm not the reason why you're fat,
this is" like it was all very like but it was super crazy psychological because I was like, we've never even discussed this before
I'm from Texas. We all eat soul food. So everybody was eating the same shit food
So with my mom 250 pounds, my brother 350 pounds
But I saw that I was eating the exact same foods and I didn't even know until I got around
Los Angeles, health conscious people. I'm like "What? What you mean to tell me you don't have freaking bacon cheeseburger every single day?"
I didn't know
So when you got to like- what triggered it in your head that said
"Oh this to me is the right way for me to look now?" I wanted to be a model
the idea that you wanted to become a model and the only idea of model to you, meant being
thin or fit or whatever that beat means, all I saw because it wasn't as popular like plus-size wasn't popular back then
We're not, it's 18 years old
It's definitely not popular
But it's still it's still opened up way more than
The conversation I will say is much more broad now
I feel like we're we're able to talk about these things a lot easier now than we were before but
What the actual way that the industry treats plus-sized
models is totally different
This question makes me
very passionate. This is really big for me because I've been like, come forth, from other body-positive influencers
But I feel like that
messages as other people put out are very dangerous to a young woman who thinks that it's okay
I don't care what size you are
It's not okay to sit and eat cheeseburgers and ice cream all day, like that has nothing do with your size
I think there's a difference between
acceptance and agreement
So like you can accept your body and be in disagreement with the health situation that you have, right?
We hear fit experts always saying "Be skinny, lose weight!" That's the healthy way to do it
But we never say- at least we don't say "be fat because it's better for your heart" or "it's better for your soul"
It's better for your you I'm gonna say even what you just said
like body acceptance versus body agreement like to you you might see one of us and be like
Oh, they love their- accept their bodies, but I'm sure they don't agree with what it looks like
I mean, I wouldn't know unless I talked with someone but like
whatever the numbers like whatever like is coming up in terms of like, you know, when you go to the doctor, like at the end of the day
But even as fit people, when you see a person who is overweight or fat or obese, however you whatever term you want to use
What's the first thing happens in your head? Do you think like "Oh, like it's great
that they accept themselves, but they could use to lose weight" or what is your first thought?
My very first thought; no one's like born that way. So you you like there's habits and things that you observe
But you actually can be born with that . We could eat the exact same thing and be 2 different people
Parenting and stuff like that. I didn't really know what to expect today
I didn't know how the body positive individuals were gonna come across
I didn't know if they were for a healthy lifestyle or not
But I think it's beautiful that you guys acknowledge how important it is to keep yourself healthy
Do I feel like there are people in the body positive community that say "Well,
I'm just happy being fat and I'm just gonna lay down and just do that." Yeah, absolutely
Absolutely. I
Fat pride, hashtag fat pride is like was something that was going on. It's just funny big buzzword everyone
You said something at some point that body positivity and like health and stuff is different. Like is that what everybody? Thanks
The actual body positive community was created
to give a platform to bodies that have been marginalized in our society. That's what it was actually created for, big body, big disabilities
What are you different races and I want to scream because I'm like "actually this is not meant for you
this is meant for bodies who who don't have a voice." The fitness community is the reason why the
body positive community exists and I think that as a
community, it's important for you guys to be a little bit more inclusive. People come up to me
I think we really did find a middle ground
But we did I think we all realize it. It's like not it's not this line. That's
Riding it you go out
Hey guys. Jason from Jubilee here. We hope you enjoyed another episode of Middle Ground
Honestly, this is one of our favorite series to make and we hope you enjoyed too
Let us know in the comments below what you think about this issue and if you agree or disagree with anyone?
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