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Home » Lose Weight Safely » OPINION: ‘The last thing women need during a pandemic is more pressure to be skinny’ – 9Honey

I've been borderline self-isolating for three weeks today, leaving the house only for groceries and walks in the last 21 days. During that time, I've indulged in plenty of comfort food as I adapt to working from home and living in a world threatened by a global pandemic.

It only seems natural to enjoy the yummier things in life at the moment, given that we're all trapped inside as Australia works to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Where's the harm in an early Easter egg or a pint of ice cream if it sparks a little bit of joy in these uncertain times.

But it seems that the fitness industry has other ideas and is more than willing to let us all know.

Almost as soon as we all started self-isolating, Instagram and Facebook were suddenly filled to the brim with ads for home workouts, free diet plans and fitness challenges to help women "get skinny" while in isolation. That's right ladies if you didn't already feel bad enough about the state of the world, you apparently need to feel bad about your body too.

In the three weeks I've been shut up at home, I've had countless diet plans and home workouts advertised to me and I'll admit, they had an effect.

"Why not use this time at home to get slim? Why not use a diet plan and shed a little weight? Why not follow a home workout every morning?" I thought. "It'll give me something to do, and at the end I'll come out of self-isolation looking hot as hell!"

Except, that's not the point of this at all.

I totally understand that the fitness industry needs to do what it can to keep afloat during this pandemic, and with gyms closed and bootcamps banned, that's harder than ever. But is it really necessary to prey on women's insecurities and reinforce outdated beauty standards at a time like this?

Is it really necessary to turn self-isolation, something we should be doing to protect ourselves and others while we wait out this health crisis, into a weight loss "challenge"?

Across the internet, women are talking about their plans to slim down or tone up in their own homes with the goal of emerging from isolation with the perfect fitness model bodies and that's their prerogative/ But I can't help but wonder if they'd feel the same pressure to achieve a "post-quarantine glow up" if they weren't constantly inundated with social media marketing telling them that they have to.

I spent almost two years battling an eating disorder that was predominantly fuelled by photos of fit women that appeared on my Instagram explore page, and they weren't even telling me to lose weight. If that was enough to push me and many other women into the grips of disordered eating patterns, what will this quarantine weight loss trend do?

When women are being encouraged to follow strict diet plans in isolation, where they're cut off from support systems, or do home work outs every day, things can get dangerous very quickly. I should know I was living alone and abroad when I developed my eating disorder, and it started with daily workout videos on YouTube and 'healthy' meals I prepared and ate alone.

I'm not saying that every woman who is sold a diet or workout plan during isolation will develop an eating disorder, but it would be irresponsible not to point out the dangers at a time like this. Many women develop eating disorders out of a desire for control, and it's the last thing any of us seem to have at the moment as coronavirus spreads.

But aside from that, I can't help but marvel at the fact that even now, as the world is brought to its knees by an unprecedented global pandemic, society is still telling women that they have to look a certain way. You'd think in the midst of this crises we'd get a free pass to just be. Be fat, be slim, be on the couch in a men's shirt and trackies, unwashed hair in a bun, or be out for a jog while maintaining a respectful 2 metre distance from everyone else.

You'd think, at a time like this, women could just exist without being told that we have to look better, be fitter, lose weight. But even coronavirus can't stop that.

With so many messages out there about how women should look, what they should eat, how they should exist, it's hard for us to separate what we genuinely want for ourselves from what media tells us we should want. I'm not here to deconstruct that, or tell anyone that they shouldn't or can't lose weight while self-isolating. But I think at a time like this, when we're facing an unprecedented global health crisis, the last thing women need is more messaging telling them they need to get skinny.

So if you want to do a quarantine fitness challenge, go for it! If you want to kickstart a new healthy eating regime while self-isolating, do it! If you want to emerge at the end of this pandemic looking and feeling better than ever, then you go girl and you achieve that!

And if you (like me) just want to lay on the couch with a bag of chips and a tub of guacamole, watching Friends reruns and hoping the world doesn't fall apart that's totally fine too. And if you just want to be sad, and feel a bit stty, and eat ice cream in bed, do it. And don't feel bad about it for one second, because we're facing the biggest world crisis of our lifetime, and if some Ben and Jerry's makes that a little easier to deal with, then you eat that damn ice cream.

Right now, we need to be looking after ourselves and that means taking care of our mental health as much as our physical health. So work out, or don't. Eat healthy, or don't. But whatever you do do it for you, and not because some fitness guru on Instagram told you that you have to.

If you or someone you know needs help dealing with eating disorders, please call The Butterfly Foundation on 1800 33 4673. In an emergency call 000.

Kindness in a time of coronavirus: generous acts bringing Aussies together

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OPINION: 'The last thing women need during a pandemic is more pressure to be skinny' - 9Honey

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Home » Lose Weight Safely » OPINION: ‘The last thing women need during a pandemic is more pressure to be skinny’ – 9Honey