I should give credit where it’s due. Though I came to many conclusions about weight loss and body image on my own, Patrick was a great source of support and knowledge when I started exercising and some of that borrowed knowledge is in the previous post. Like me, he doesn’t have any medical expertise, but he picked up a lot of health-related knowledge from rowing crew competitively in Germany and at Yale. And given that I’ve had plenty of wacked-out ideas about diets in the past, I’m glad that he was a voice of reason and taught me that moderation (rather than deprivation) is the best path.
Related: Competitive athletes are also subject to all kinds of ridiculous body requirements. The Roomie, for example, used to only weigh 165 pounds (he’s 6’ 2”) because he had to meet the weight limit for the lightweight team. Which is insane because he’s twenty pounds heavier now. Though the last post focused mostly on women’s beauty ideals, they’re not the only ones who are susceptible to unhealthy ideas about their bodies; men are too. Another reason why a strict criteria for how we look doesn’t serve anyone’s best interests.
