One of the most important things I got introduced to during my high school was weight training. If it was not for my best friend who single-handedly convinced me to go to the school gym and train with him, I would not have been the same person that I am today. At first, I undertook training for the physical gain, but it turned out to benefit much more than just that. Eventually, it fundamentally changed the way I conducted myself in school and my perception of my own body and mind. It all started at puberty - during my middle school years, I started suffering from body shaming issues. I still remember the feeling I had when I looked at myself in the mirror as I was getting ready for my first day of high school. I said to myself, "Nobody is going to like you, you are too fat!" Although I had always heard that it is not how one looks, but how one represents oneself that matters, I found myself becoming more uncomfortable as I walked through the halls of my school and started hating every minute of it. …show more content…
My end goal was to enhance my confidence, to feel better, and to represent the best of myself. While I was consistently stepping up the training hours at the gym, I did not notice much change in the beginning, but as I hit certain goals the transformation started becoming apparent to me. I had begun participating more confidently in classes by raising my hand often to contribute to the classroom discussions. Thereafter, I never looked back and my progress soon got noticed by my teachers. I remember that health class during 10th grade when my teacher was talking about how important it is for everyone to project confidence. To my surprise, she pointed to me and said “Look at Suraj, he is one of the most confident students I have seen this year.” That moment was when all the dots connected and I realized the work I had been doing all these months had finally started to pay
I would question on how someone could look like that when no one I knew did. It would make me feel self-conscious at the beach; I would not want to go in the water with my friends. When you enter high school, it should be exciting to meet boys. However, for me, I would be too nervous since I could not picture myself or make myself the perfect women. Eventually, I realized how everyone felt the same way as me. This made me realize how idiotic I was. I realized no one could look like that so neither could I. My friends agreed with me and this made me feel more comfortable in my own skin. I was confident since I knew I was the best person I could be. However, there are some young girls whose self-esteem is so low that leads to these young women practicing unhealthy lifestyles. Jean Kilbourne was correct when she says that our culture influences women to strive for the "perfect" body and that it reduces women to sex objects. If I'm not beautiful like Kim Kardashian or have Taylor Swift's amazing legs then I can't possibly be
Out of nowhere my name got called to claim the award of “Most improved student of Class of 2014”. I was so proud of myself, it felt so good to know that I achieved something that I really wanted. I knew I could do something if I put my mind to it, and I did and I was so proud of
It is difficult to pinpoint what exactly shapes a person’s view on body image because bodies are everywhere. In certain time periods, one’s body image was influenced by different factors. In the Victorian Age, status pressured women to be skinny, while current advertisements influence people to achieve the “ideal” body. The professional world today, unfortunately also also makes judgements in regard to an employee’s character based on their weight. However, nothing is more influential than what a person goes through during their everyday life. Even though status, advertisements, and the professional world help shape a person’s view of their own body image, the strongest pressure comes from our own personal experiences with our family and rejection.
Such as toxic myths and challenges some commonly held attitudes in contemporary society. There are four myths explaining body image Myth 1: How you look is more important than who you are, not quite because you tend to want to change to look a certain way but in the inside you'll alway be yourself. Myth 2: Anyone can be slender and attractive if they work at it, yeah like when you see a slim person and you gain knowledge of wanting to look like them because not satisfied with your body. For instance, Myth 3: Extreme dieting is an effective weight-loss strategy in trying fad diets or "quick-weight-loss"products or cross the limits to having the " perfect " body. For example my friend Crystal was very insecure of her body. Whom later began with small things such as loss of appetite when seeing people all fit, bad habits of eating leading to eating disorders and saying " i'm fat " just not eat and feeling overwhelmed just to get the perfect body. But later came the sickness she got which is called anemia to help her recover I was there for her in every way she needed me to help. By giving her eating plans and boosting her confidence gaining her power as how beautiful she was inside and out her self esteem to going in group exercise and making her love herself. Myth 4: Appearance is more important than health, no because it limits yourself on eating and leads to sickness of all kind with your
This year my long term goal was to focus more on being consistent with my weaknesses. I wanted pullups by the Open had and luckily they came through in the nick of time. Now I would like to get HSPUs by the time I go home to see my family this summer. I want to keep challenging myself to maximize my capabilities; something I wasn’t comfortable doing until I came to CrossFit Ergon. My ultimate goal is to complete my time in the Army and coach Adaptive Athletes and Veterans.Understanding that I will not always perform at 100% and it will be okay helps me remain confident in my training and motivated to meet new goals. I am here to progress in a sport that takes time, lots of technique and patience. Accepting that there are movements I cannot do (at the moment) and enjoying the little wins here and there, help me remain positive. Being surrounded by such an uplifting coaching staff and community of athletes that have come together like CrossFit Ergon has; it is not hard to find the motivation to come and train often. Show up and do work! Accept that most things won’t happen overnight and that every day is another opportunity to better
I was raised with the mindset that if you are going to do something, you might as well be proud of it. I want to set goals for my performance and attempt as much as I can reach my goals.
A person will speak or act negative about their body when they have a negative image of themselves. You can see low self-esteem in someone who has a negative body image. This happens in this film when Janis, Damien, and Cady give Regina these bars that Cady’s mom used to feed the children in Africa to help them gain weight. Regina was looking to loose weight so that she could fit perfectly into her dress for homecoming (she needed to be queen.) Once she started gaining weight she was uncomfortable in the only clothes that fit her and had to wear sweatpants. Her best friends started pointing it out and you could see her frustration with the weight gain. She was now uncomfortable in her own skin. This happens to women all the time. Especially women in high school and college, our bodies are constantly changing and that can be very tough on our personal body image thoughts. I know I have gained weight in the past year but have tried to keep a level head and just head to the gym more. I think that this class has shown that body image is only negative if you let other things influence you negatively. It’s all about our own personal thoughts and we need to make those
Everywhere one looks today, one will notice that our culture places a very high value on women being thin. Many will argue that today’s fashion models have “filled out” compared to the times past; however the evidence of this is really hard to see. Our society admires men for what they accomplish and what they achieve. Women are usually evaluated by and accepted for how they look, regardless of what they do. A woman can be incredibly successful and still find that her beauty or lack of it will have more to do with her acceptance than what she is able to accomplish. “From the time they are tiny children, most females are taught that beauty is the supreme objective in life” (Claude-Pierre, p18). The peer pressure for girls in school to be skinny is often far greater than for boys to make a team. When it is spring, young girls begin thinking “How am I going to look in my bathing suit? I better take off a few more pounds.”
A person must have the self-confidence and approval for themselves before they even have the right to look at others and judge them. That self-confidence must be gained through self-reflection and a positive environment. Most people believe that low self-esteem and not having confidence is just a person being “bummed out”. However, it is actually viewed as an official mental health and thinking disorder by many doctors and universities across the globe. “Once [A low self-esteem] is formed, this negative view permeates every thought, producing faulty assumptions and ongoing self-defeating behavior.” (Insert citation). Low self-esteem is most common among high school age students or teenagers who are plagued by the judging from dozens to hundreds of other students. All of these students were raised that it is okay to blatantly judge others in a sickening way. This judging can lead to depression, self-harm, and sometimes even suicide. According to (Author 3), “Among high school students, 44% of girls and 15% of guys are attempting to lose weight. Over 70% of girls age 15 to 17 avoid normal daily activities, such as attending school, when they feel bad about their looks.” (Insert Citation). If programs were made and enforced upon to encourage all body types in a positive way, self-love would be encouraged and people could attempt to lose weight in a much healthier
Sure, some of us have this great confidence within ourselves about looking great, but that does not hold true for everyone. I understand the pain or disgust, or even disappointment one feels when they look in the mirror and say, “I wish I could change this or that about myself”. Although this piece is written about the author’s life, it holds meaning and connects with for many people; one only has to dig deep enough to find one. For me, it was to realize what is important in life can change, adapt and that we must explore our inner selves and find our own path in life.
In the United States, a mere fifteen percent of the population regularly weight trains. This percentage shows just how few of us actually take part in weight lifting. The lack of participation may be a big contributor to many of this country’s health problems because it acts as such a fantastic “prevention system.” A few of the health problems it thwarts include osteoporosis, diabetes, colon cancer, heart attacks, and physical injuries. It’s a very advantageous training that everyone that’s capable of doing it should take part in it actively. An increase in muscular endurance, prevention of many health problems, and reversal of the natural decline of the body’s metabolism are all great reasons for people to start doing this exercise (“Few Americans”).
.... I remember just telling myself that I had to get skinnier or else everyone was going to hate me and I would never have any more friends; that’s when I started developing many eating disorder, such as anorexia, bulimia, and binging. I never stopped and thought about what people actually liked about me, why were my friends my friends in the first place? That’s when I realized that the reason people liked me wasn’t because of my weight or how my body looked, it was because of the person I was. It was because I had a nice personality and I was someone they could talk to and hangout with, it never had to do with my weight; it was all in my head. That’s what I want teenagers to realize; nobody is going to care about what you weigh or how thin your body is, only you are. In the end, as long as you are healthy and nourished you should be happy just the way you are.
The overwhelming idea of thinness is probably the most predominant and pressuring standard. Tiggeman, Marika writes, “This is not surprising when current societal standards for beauty inordinately emphasize the desirability of thinness, an ideal accepted by most women but impossible for many to achieve.” (1) In another study it is noted that unhealthy attitudes are the norm in term of female body image, “Widespread body dissatisfaction among women and girls, particularly with body shape and weight has been well documented in many studies, so much so that weight has been aptly described as ‘a normative discontent’”. (79) Particularly in adolescent and prepubescent girls are the effects of poor self-image jarring, as the increased level of dis...
I’ve never stuck to anything and worked really hard on it. I might have been good at what I did, but other people were better. That disappointed me. I’ve never learned that progress requires time. Weightlifting helps me realize that getting stronger requires months of hard work, even years.
Introduction: I will never forget one of the times, yes I only said one of the times, I was bullied in high school. I went to Mc Donald’s with a friend for lunch and had a salad. After we got back to school, I went to my locker to get my books for my next class. As I opened my locker, a note fell out. I opened it and it read “I know you went to McDonald’s but how much did you eat?” Every time I was bullied in high school, it was related to my body image and to this day, I still tend to struggle with it, just not as much. Just bringing