By Will McCurdy

Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief 

The most important thing I can stress to anyone thinking of losing or gaining weight is to be healthy.

Last year, I was introduced to #thinspiration via the YouTube channel of Lacy Green. The pictures and statements attached to it border along the lines of religious fervor with sayings such as “the skinnier, the better” and “must stay skinny for summer,” repeated ad nauseam, coupled with so-called workout regimens that ignore nutrition in favor of burning off calories to the point of serious physical damage.

In the prime of teenage years and the younger twenties, it’s easy to get caught up in the wondrous (and occasionally inhuman) amount of food, sugar and alcohol one can consume without consideration for what creating a habit of such consumption will bring. Eat too much and obesity and organ issues are just around the corner in one’s thirties and forties. Yet, eat too little and the organ failure coupled with stress comes in to wreak havoc on the immune system.

Thus, the perfect middle ground is healthiness. What is the healthy body type one might ask? Honestly, it’s most of them. A thinner person can be just as healthy as their bulkier counterpart so long as their insides are functioning properly. The concern with outside appearances is a purely vain and pressured pursuit subjected onto the masses for purposes of social homogenization and economic exploitation, both of which add unnecessary stress to an already daunting existence.

We all have those secret doubts, the thoughts in the back of the mind that question whether or not to go to the gym, or drop those few pounds for that guy or girl you’ve been eyeballing — it’s the voice that makes you question if you want to eat your favorite sandwich. To combat this is the Greek concept of sophrosyne: of existing in moderation. Simply being healthy and keeping moderation in mind is the secret to having a good self-image, but it is only true when one is truly happy with themselves, which if you’re a perfectly normal (biologically speaking) human, you have no reason not to be.

A person who turns you down based on the fact that they don’t care for your physicality is not someone you want to be with anyway. Instead, search for those people that bring you joy, new experiences and possibly sandwiches, for those are the people that will help develop you as a person, something no amount of dieting or food can do.

Humanity is full of individuals who come in billions of different varieties and it is statistically improbable that you will never be liked. So go ahead, go on a hike, sit on the couch, finish that candy bar and know that everything is fine so long as you like yourself.