I would discourage people from vanity, especially women, for we have been told all our lives that we are only worth a plugged nickle insofar as we match some impossible (not "difficult to attain"--impossible!) "beauty" goal.
I think that for women especially, I'd suggest (if they wanted my advice) working with "Fat acceptance" or other therapeutic sanity-enhancing techniques in addition to losing excess fat.
Then, learn to judge others not by how fat they are/how tall/their race/how "fashionable" clothes or haircuts they can afford, but by the content of their character. Be blind to everything but true substance in others.
Focus on what your body can do, not on how it looks.
Accept that some fat on the thighs and buttocks is healthy and normal for a woman, not a sign of weakness or moral decay.
Embrace your stretchmarks and sagging breasts as signs of mature womanhood, of blessed signs of your bringing new life into this world.
Surround yourself with people who also are accepting of many types of people, who look for character rather than looks.
Cut the time you spend in front of a mirror in half every six months. Take that saved time and use it to paint, garden, create, volunteer with people in need, or meditate/pray however that is most meaningful to you. And laugh, laugh, laugh--one of the best ways to spend time in life!
This path leads, in my experience, to a richer life of mind and spirit, a more interesting group of friends, and the possible end to the fixation on external details and self-hatred that plagues well over half the women on this board and elsewhere, whether they manifest that self-hatred through vomiting, taking dangerous diet pills, or not.
And then, you'll be well situated for reaching ages 40, 50, 60, and beyond, when very few people will give you credit for outward "beauty." You'll have something inside you that no one can take away with a insult or slight.
By all means, don't give up on your Self. But Self is much much more than externals. Joyously discover all the myriad facets of yourself. Live fully now, at 15 or 50 or 150 pounds overweight, too! You're a one-time gift in a vast universe. Know that and rejoice in it.
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