New Years resolution: Become a Skinny Bitch?

"She is prettier, she's more successful, she's skinnier, she's married." Why do we compare so much to one and other? Yes, she is more successful, yes she has more followers, yes she's better well off, yes she's skinnier, so what??

Did you know that women suffer from a high record level of depression? Yes, we are more depressed than ever? The reason, because of social media! 

Yesterday after I finished barre class, I saw a woman who I thought was in her late 30's taking a picture of herself in the mirror of the room, where we just had our class. My immediate reaction, "I should take one myself, I look pretty good today, I'm not as skinny as she is, but I can pull it off." A few minutes later, I bumped into this same woman in the locker room. So we started to chat. 

She looked terrific, and not only I found out she wasn't in her late 30's, but to my surprise, she was also almost 50. 

"I'm impressed," I said. "For one, you look amazing, and second, you are up to beat with social media." Her answer struck me more. "I only post photos of myself and is not much work. I just let my followers see what I'm doing all day". "And, that's not hard work?" I replied. 

On the other corner of the locker, I saw a woman staring at us. She was somewhat overweight and extremely conscious of her body. The influencer I was talking to was almost naked, and so was I. But the lady who was staring at us was covered with towels up to her neck. —If a man is reading this, yes, women tend to be naked in the locker room.

As I was leaving the gym, I bumped into the lady who was staring at us, we started to chat, and then I asked her, "do you feel ashamed of your body?" She looked at me with disbelief, although she replied quite frankly, "Yes!" She said. "Why would be a stupid question right now," so I had to think of something else to keep the conversation going. So I thought of, "you don't like the way you look?" "Do you want the truth?" She replied, "Of course." I responded immediately.  "I actually like the way I look. I don't think I am that fat. I like my body. What I cannot stand is the way people look at me; every single woman at Equinox seems like a model". -For those who live outside the US, Equinox is a popular gym in Manhattan-. I didn't know what to respond to that, and the truth came out! "I was fat once." She thought I said it out of pitty, but I was. And, her honest response got me thinking. 

Why do we care so much about what other people think? Why do we all want to look alike? But no matter how much you try, something I've learned is that if you are not honest with yourself, and you live trying to satisfy others, you will never, ever be happy. Simply, because you are not true to yourself, and what may seem important to others, may not necessarily be relevant to you.

So if you want to be a skinny bitch this year, go ahead, go on a diet, exercise, do whatever you want to do, but only do it because you want it, and not because someone else next to you is doing it, or much less because of someone on your Instagram account is doing it. We need to go back and find authenticity in ourselves. 

With love, 

Rebeka.