Today I found myself at a job fair. Iām on a major hunt for a steady teaching job right now. At this job fair, I wandered around and spoke to some schools but thatās not the point Iām getting to. I visited this one particular table where they had a fun-size candy bucket. Once I left the building, I sort of aquatinted myself with being āthat kidā at Halloween. We all know the āoneā I mean; the āoneā who takes one than one single piece of your fun-size candy in the bucket. That was mean todayā¦I took like 3..maybe 4. Thatās what they are for, right?
As I was leaving the building to go run some other errands, I got to thinking about something that I didnāt realized bugged me until today. You know all those articles that pop up around Halloween, Christmas, Valentineās Day and Easter about āhow long you have to run to work off holiday treatsā or āwhat 100 calories really looks like in your candyā? I decided that they really infuriate me!!! It makes me mad in my deep, down core for multiple reasons. Here we go, deep breath.
Oh! Do you get the title now? A real WhatChaMaCallIt??? You just gotta Rolo with my Mounds of Gummie jokes here.
Article examples:
These Photos of 100 Calories of Valentineās Day Candy Will Probably Break Your Heart– by Jenny Sugar via PopSugar
How Long It Takes to Burn Off Your Favorite Fun-Size Treat– by Leta Shy via PopSugar
How Much Exercise It Takes To Burn Off Your Favorite Valentineās Sweets– by Kaylin Pound via Elite Daily
First of all: ITāS A DANG HOLIDAY!!!!!!!
Arenāt these the days that we arenāt supposed to be worrying about calories or what we are eating. Arenāt we supposed to be enjoying these holidays? Are we not allowed to divulge a little bit?! Itās Christmas/Halloween/insert your favorite holiday here for crying out loud! Heck, even if itās not a holiday, maybe you just had a really crumby Thursday and wanted to eat your fun-size Snickers. I donāt think you should be judged.
Second of all: WHY are we so hyper-focused on āburning offā our food?
Personally, because Iām still in the process of recovering from an eating disorder I do sometimes think about how Iām going to get rid of whatever I just ate later. However, I donāt think normal people are doing that. Thatās not normal or intuitive eating. Thatās disorder eating!!! These articles are having people think disordered thoughts! This is how eating disorders begin, yāall! When you begin to think āoh, how many miles am I going to have to run later?ā or āhow many minutes of spin class/yoga do I need to do?ā if I eat *this specific piece of candy/chocolate* thatās when you are no longer enjoying what is supposed to be a treat. Thatās when you begin to not want to eat anything be vegetables and water. We shouldn’t constantly have to feel like we need to have “food guilt” when we eat a fun-size snack! Itās highly dangerous in my opinion and these articles are just thrown around on just about every holiday I can think of.
Third of all: Why does society feel the need to constantly tell us to ābe fitā or workout?
I see it everywhere. Magazines, Facebook, random ads that pop up, news sites, radio, there are more places I know but those are all I can dish out right now. I see these headlines of āshrink 3 sizes in 2 weeksā, ālook hot from behindā and ālook great nakedā among countless others. This one almost takes the cake for me: āhow I got my body backā wait, was it lost!? Good gosh, canāt we just be happy how we are?! These articles and magazines go around preaching āself-loveā but it really seems like are leaning towards promoting self-hate. Why do we need any articles about this at the grocery store? Whereās the article about how to like yourself more? I NEED that one!
I canāt really say it any better than how this Instagram user I follow said it. Her account is Nourish And Eat and her name is Gina and she promotes loving yourself and eating disorder recovery. Sheās pretty inspirational.
Finally: If we analyze everything we put in our mouthā¦..are we really living and enjoying life?
Thatās the whole point of eating disorder recovery. Itās about feeling all your emotions and enjoying life and everything in it. I donāt know about you, but this girl needs her chocolate and Iād like to be able to savor it and not worry about what I just consumed and how Iām going to rid myself of it later. Life is meant to be enjoyed not merely in fun-size, but all the time.Ā I think we just need to focus less on the āwhatās in my holiday candyā and enjoy eating the holiday candy we love! Because letās be honest, itās so so so very good and one perk of being an adult is getting to take more than one piece out of the Halloween candy bucket that night š
Image From
Stay Fearless 
