Skinny vs Healthy- There is a Difference

I have been getting comments and such in regards to being skinny, too skinny or that I don’t need to lose any more weight so last night I posted something on my face book wall to clarify.

Here is what I wrote:
“People, there are differences between fit/healthy and skinny. I am not skinny, nor am I trying to be skinny. I am fit and healthy which was and is my goal”.

Why is it that people think that as soon as one starts a fitness program or lifestyle change and begins to look different i.e. lose weight that it’s a bad thing and that they are becoming too skinny?

Or that the only reason one chooses to do something like this in the first place is to lose weight? Couldn’t it possibly be because they enjoy it or because they dreamt about doing something like this forever?

Is it because they are jealous, it is because they have no idea and do not understand or is there some other underlying reason or a mixture of all of these?

Do I look unhealthy? I know for a fact that I don’t. I have worked hard to be where I am and I am going to continue to work hard to make it to the competition and even afterward. I have muscle; skinny girls don’t have muscle, they have bone and they look sickly.

I have never felt better in my life and as I stated before not only do I look different but things that affected me before like IBS, migraines and bad PMS have all but disappeared.

Take a look at this picture. The one on the right is skinny, the one on the left is fit, healthy and strong—that’s me! There is a difference!

I am proud to say that I don’t starve myself nor have I ever starved myself, in fact I eat 5-6 times a day and I eat very clean food. “Strong is the new skinny”!

Also as I stated in previous blogs, I didn’t start this process to lose weight or be skinny. I started this process to be healthy, to be fit and strong and build muscle.

One thing that needs to be clarified and I believe that I have also said this before; the competition diet is not a maintainable lifestyle diet or a diet that is recommended for long periods of time. Maybe this is the misunderstanding; the competition prep nutrition plan and workout style that I am doing now is not something that I will maintain after November 17, 2012, it is for stage prep ONLY.

After this date, I will have a few cheat meals and even take a small break from the gym but I will get right back into the healthy lifestyle, the clean eating plan and the regular gym workouts that I was doing before the 12 week mark after these few days, for a lifetime.

For me, this is a lifestyle choice, a possible career path and something that I love and is important to me. The goal is not and has never been to be skinny. The word skinny to me implies unhealthy. The goal is to be fit, athletic and healthy because I feel better this way.