The Rhino vs the Unicorn

I'll admit it, I have problems with my self body image. Almost my whole life I have wished I was somebody else, and have tried to attain an unrealistic body for the wrong reasons. It has all backfired on me. Even after losing 100 pounds, I am still not happy with the way I look. No matter what everybody has ever told me, I've never been proud of my achievement or happy with what I am. I still struggle with wanting to have that perfect magazine body.. I honestly try again and again to get it. But then the husband and I want to go out and get ice cream.. what to do then? I think a lot of us have a problem with trying to be someone we're just not. I realized that we all are a pretty perfect version of exactly what we are. Who is to say that thin is beautiful? Sure, it's good to be healthy, but when did beauty start playing a part? When did the world become so materialistic and obsessed with image? I would like to share a story with all of you. It helped me take a new perspective to all of this...

"This picture makes me so sad and it also embodies a lot of what is wrong with media and its effect on body image. The unicorn in the photo doesn’t exist. It’s an unattainable dream in the clouds. Also, the unicorn is a horse. The poor rhino on the treadmill is a RHINO. Rhinos and horses aren’t in the same family of species. That rhino is built like a rhino. It’s a beautiful rhino. It looks exactly the way a rhino should look. But if it only ever thinks it’s supposed to look like something that it genetically and physically just is not, it will believe that it won’t be beautiful ever. It’s exactly the same thing with girls and “thinspiration.” Bodies in magazines are photoshopped. Not even the models in the magazines look like the pictures. Ladies, don’t look at something that isn’t you and wish that you could be it. Look at yourself and wish to be yourself. Don’t love something fake and unattainable more than your own self. Love your self, or a version of your self you want to become, but don’t disregard everything you have going on for you in favor of some poster figure. And furthermore, don’t give in to what media and society tell you about your body. Own your body and love it. It does everything for you and it’s the only one you have. Don’t hate the way it looks just because it doesn’t look like a magazine picture. That’s no way to treat something that literally does everything for you. Dear cartoon rhino in this picture, you are perfect just the way you are. BE a rhino. OWN being a rhino. Embrace being a rhino. You want to be a rhino that exists and not a fake horse with a horn that doesn’t exist. Replace that poster with a poster of a rhino. You are a beautiful rhino with a beautiful horn, an adorable tail, and adorable ears, and all the other rhinos love you exactly the way you are."

** Note: This is not to discourage trying to become a healthier you, just trying to emphasize the point that being thin does not necessarily make you internally happy or beautiful. You are already beautiful. Own it!