I’ve always considered myself normal. Ask my boyfriend – I pretty much pride myself on the fact that I’m average, and my thoughts are quite similar to the thoughts of every other millennial woman around me.
However, I’ve recently realised thoughts I have about body image and weight loss aren’t common to everyone else. My friends, coworkers and family don’t share my views.
You see, I’m not happy if I accidentally lose weight.
Listen: Bec Sparrow talks about her relationship with herself and her image.
The thought I might lose a couple kilos as a consequence of the flu doesn’t cross my mind, much less thrill me. When I’m in bed – feeling like I’d sooner have the world swallow me whole than return to the bathroom to empty what’s left of the contents of my stomach – I’m not comforted by the fact that I didn’t consume any calories today.
When I put my hand up for a charity challenge during which I only ate rations for a week, I was only (self-pityingly) thinking about the tasty food I couldn’t consume. So when friends in their late 20s asked if I’d weighed myself beforehand, or if I’d lost weight, I was a bit surprised.
However, I didn’t realise how alone I was as a healthy woman who’s not trying to lose weight until Kim Kardashian joked “the flu can be an amazing diet” on Twitter this week.
Yes, she faced the inevitable backlash of social media’s excitable critics and Kardashian-bashers. But far more people – at least those who I spoke to – could relate to Kim to some extent. They too “somewhat enjoyed the one perk of being bedridden for all that time”.
