A Letter To Every Teenage Girl In Britain
posted on: December 27, 2016. posted in: Weight loss
I first wrote this letter a couple of years back, but seeing as January is coming and 1000s of young girls will be tempted to diet... I'm sharing this again.
Please share with any teenage girls you know.
__________
Dear Teenage British Girl
If you are reading this, then it's because your Mum and Dad really care about you and your future. They love you and want the very best for you, physically and emotionally. And perhaps your Mum in particular is hoping that by reading this you don't make the same mistakes she has.
Right now you've probably got better things to do than reading this, but 20 years from now, you might be very happy you did. Five minutes is all this is going to take, so please hang in there...
So why am I writing to you?
Well, my "day job" is a Personal Trainer and Weight Loss Coach, working with overweight and obese people. Although I work with men and women of all ages, shapes and sizes, my average client is...
A woman, aged 35 to 45, weighing 13 to 15 stone.
And do you know what's really interesting about my average client? All those women I train who are 35 to 40 and obese? All those women I train who have various weight related health conditions such as diabetes, osteoarthritis and depression?
Not so long ago...
They were healthy, happy teenage girls...
Just. Like. YOU.
So how did they go from being healthy, happy teenage girls... just like you... to unhappy, obese women who have lost control of their eating habits, weight and health?
Every single one of my obese, 35 to 40 year old female clients tells me the exact same story... a story I've heard hundreds of times... and sadly, I fear, will hear hundreds more times in the future...
Looking back at themselves as teenagers, they were actually perfectly healthy. They were a healthy weight, a healthy shape, they had healthy eating habits, and with hindsight they can only dream of being that kind of body shape again.
But at the time... when they were teenagers...
Something convinced them... they were FAT.
Many of them remember, and have shared with me, the exact moment this happened. Examples include:
- looking in a magazine and comparing their body to a model. - them noticing their chest, hips and legs getting bigger. - a boy in class making a comment about their weight. - their dad telling them they're getting a bit chubby. - their mum taking them to a local slimming class.
Whatever the trigger, something happened in their teenage years that convinced them THEY NEEDED TO LOSE WEIGHT.
That moment... that decision... in their teenage years... started them on the journey to obesity in their 30s and 40s.
To cut an already long story short...
As teenagers, convinced they were fat, they made the decision to start EATING LESS. Many of them made the decision to go ON A DIET. Many of them simply tried to avoid eating altogether. But little did they know at the time, that by eating less they were starving their bodies, which helped them lose weight in the short term, but caused rebound weight gain in the long term.
(Your body cannot tell the difference between a diet and a famine. Every time you diet you lose weight, just as you would during a famine. Then during the diet / famine hormones are released which increase your addiction to food and make you binge eat. Food addiction and binge eating is the body's natural way of surviving famine, ensuring you store excess fat to prepare you for the next famine. Repeat this cycle yearly, as dieters do, and you get fatter and fatter with every diet you attempt.)
The truth?
My female clients weren't overweight as teenagers, and they didn't need to lose weight at all. More importantly than that, the worst decision they could ever have made was to EAT LESS, which increased their food addiction, binge eating and long term weight gain.
You see, here's what is really happening to your body...
All teenage girls gain weight, in the form of bodyfat. This is perfectly normal and perfectly healthy. It is simply your body making the transition from being a girl to a woman. A lot of that bodyfat goes on pretty obvious places - your chest, hips and thighs. But it's also perfectly normal to gain weight on your stomach and arms.
Women are not designed.... evolved... to be the stick thin, airbrushed models you see in magazines. So when teenager girls see their bodies changing to a natural, healthy, female shape, they make the mistake of thinking they're getting fat. Comments from friends, family and even doctors increase the pressure to lose weight.
So they diet.
Their body responds by binge eating...
So it regains the weight AND MORE, to protect them.
So they diet again.... lose weight again... regain more again...
Repeating this cycle... until they've had enough of the diet industry.. until they've had enough of regaining weight... until they've had enough of being obese... and they're ready to meet me.
I hope we NEVER MEET.
I hope this is first and last time you ever read one of my posts.
To ensure this happens....
Please. Don't. Diet.
The diet industry is a massive con that doesn't work and increases food addiction, but gets away with it by blaming willpower. Save yourself a world pain... stress... and weight gain.
Have nothing to do with it. EVER.
If you want to improve your health and fitness... If you want to look stronger and leaner... then get into sport... get into athletics... get into gymnastics... get into swimming... get into football... get into rugby... get into hockey... get into weight lifting... get into the gym...
Get into anything that works your muscles and makes you stronger, not lighter and weaker. Get into anything that makes you think about NUTRITION... fuelling your body... rather than DIETING... starving your body.
And most importantly of all...
Be happy with your body... RIGHT NOW... as it is...
Whatever shape it is.
Because your future self would give anything and everything...
To look, feel and be as healthy as you are today.
So embrace it. Don't waste it.
Yours sincerely
Liam
[If you'd like some FREE help and advice, please email us for a non-judgemental conversation about your child's weight and nutrition.]
