Aging in this society that we live in can be very stressful. We have social ideal that is dictated to us. Even the older models are nipped and tucked and airbrushed to show us what we need to look like at a certain age. They are all a size 0 or 2… A size 4 or 6 is already a large woman. Nasty! Who gave them the right to dictate this to us? How can the ideal woman be something that only .0001% seem to attain?
Even the covers of health magazines show these same women…chiseled and tiny. We are told that everything we eat is unhealthy. In a large part, that is true…but each year they seem to come out with the newest “superfood” that will cure wrinkles, obesity and heart problems. Keeping up with this list is exhausting. At least for someone like me…someone who doesn’t like to cook in the first place. 🙂 The guilt I live with in the kitchen is overwhelming at times.
Often these super foods and healthy diet plans are unattainable by the regular folk…they are just too expensive to buy. I know that going through the isles at the grocery store sometimes almost brings me to tears because I can’t afford to feed “healthy” food to my children. It’s going to be my fault when they grow up unhealthy, with a lifetime of allergies and health issues. Arrrggghhh!!!
What is the true picture of perfection? I think that it is a person who radiates peace and love. Someone who reflects inner health. A smile. How can we, as women, ignore the message of this world and live a life of inner health and vitality? We can start paying less attention to the covers of magazines…maybe even go to the point of not buying them at all!! We can eat the food that is listed in the Bible. There is a huge list of foods in there…foods that are good and acceptable for us. We can stop eating the food that brings us down. The food that fogs our brain and heart. I know it when I eat it…my mind doesn’t work very well. I am listless and tired. My face is blotchy and itchy. It is hard to smile, while feeling like a balloon, because your body is trying to work overtime to process what you just ate. Even eating too much healthy food can be detrimental. It’s still too much food…! And it can also eat at your bank account.
Watching the people here in Africa eat is such a good lesson in simplicity. They eat what they can afford. It’s simple. Lots of veggies and fruits. Whatever they can get at the market that day, or what they can grow. They stay active, work hard…and smile a lot. When you see an African that is overweight it is because they are wealthy and start drinking soda all the time. They eat sugar and large quantities of food. They are so similar to what we see in our culture. Tired. Falling asleep all the time. Back problems….the list goes on.
Being overweight is different in everyone. Health and weight don’t always go hand in hand. We are just conditioned to think so.Deep down inside we know what is good for us. We also know what it feels like to overindulge. We desperately want to be socially acceptable in our appearance. But, we need to understand that we are all created differently. Most of us are not created to be anywhere close to a size 4 or 6! That’s okay! When we reflect the inner health of love and vitality…we are living as we should. A reflection of Christ’s perfection.
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