Eating Disorders, Body Image and Why Those Stupid Special-K Commercials Piss Me Off

“What will you gain when you lose?” is the Special K weight loss motto. There’s something that contradicts that that they also say: “Lose up to 6 pounds in two weeks” but then they say “…more than just a number” and to me, that is all around an oxymoron. One in 200 women die from anorexia in American, one million men in America suffer from an eating disorder and 10 to 15% of the people that have bulimia are male. Most of the people I know, including myself, can say that at one point they hated themselves. Most currently still either hate themselves for how they look or their weight, or because of an on going fight. Some of it could be from previous years of being bullied and teased or just because they grew up thinking there was a certain way things had to be.

It’s really strange to be in the middle of all of this. Either contemplating everything or not caring about anything; it’s a really bittersweet thing to go through. Seeing all the fit girls who play sports but can still eat McDonalds and say that they don’t care what their weight is, but then seeing a bunch of people pick at their food, but no one really notices that anything is wrong when they say “oh, I wasn’t hungry to begin with.” It’s a really strange thing to know about all of these things and automatically think of all of the bad things when people say something, mention something in passing, or I notice it. It’s a really strange thing to read a bunch of text post and articles on how new types of disorders and illnesses are affecting people today, and then reading a reminder to everyone that a blogger posted, saying that everyone is beautiful and how you shouldn’t let your illness affect you. But then how can someone not let their illness affect them when there are commercials on TV that have girls stepping on and off scales for a cereal commercial but then when they step on the scales, it shows “empowering words” like Sassy, Fab, Style, Nerve, Joy, Drive, Shine, Pep, Pride, Hope, Spirit, Calm, Laughter, Freedom and so on and so forth. I understand the whole point of “liking to step on the scale and not feel afraid of the scale” but, I just feel like the whole “empowering words” don’t do anything for me or anyone for that matter. I don’t get on the scale to see some dumb word saying that I’m fantastic and cock-blocking my knowledge of my weight. But, what really makes me mad about those commercials is that why are you telling someone that they should “take the Special-K challenge” by seeing how many pounds they can lose in two weeks, but then saying “you’re more than a number?” I’m fully behind the whole movement of “lose weight if you want and if you don’t, more power to you!” thing but, when a big company that produces cereal says that you can lose weight on their diet and cereal products. It doesn’t make sense to me. Weight, body image and diet are very bittersweet things.

Loving yourself and getting used to living in your own body is a hard thing. Why should you have to depend on your weight to tell you if you love yourself that day or not? Why should you have to use specific silverware and plates because you’re not comfortable with other ones? Why should you have to look at nutrition labels? Why should you have to go for that two hour run? Why should you have to drink all that water? Why should you have to eat that salad? You don’t. Those things should only be if someone wants to. No one should be forced into a diet or workout routine if they don’t want to. No one should be bullied into an illness or disorder. Living in your body is hard enough to get used to and why should someone be thrown off to the point where they’re not sure if they want to be in their own body anymore. Everyone is just trying to find their way in their own body and just try to adapt in this world.

So, in other words, Special-K, bulimia, anorexia, over-eating-binge disorder, EDNOS, promotional gyms and bullies should all turn right around and find their way off the earth. Everyone should be able to get help and be listened to. There’s no way that those posts, articles, websites, comments, pages, magazines, commercials and books won’t be thrown away and never thought about again, because some people in the majority might thing that those are helpful tools for some. 80% of the people who go and get treatment for their illness or disorder, are sent away without the intensity or type of treatment they needed. Just let that sink in.