Another Annoying Series of Thoughts About Body Image

No, but really. Body image was not something that I thought about for 9 months until I went on vacation back home for a week. Then it was on OVERLOAD. This is coming from someone who, until her senior year of college, could have always stood to lose just 5 more pounds. I started dieting when I was 6 years old because I was a genuinely fat kid, and did not stop until I turned 21. I went from fat to thin to fat to thin, some days binge eating and some days forcing myself into 500 calorie/ day diets. It sucked. All of it. Finally I wized up and stopped. I started running, and afterwards I ate a lot of whatever I felt that my body NEEDED. It was with that mind set that I went into my experience here in the Islamique Republique de Mauritanie.
When I first got here, I lost about 10 lbs almost immdiately. Chalk that up to 120 degree days and malnutrition. You average Mauritanian gets almost no protein in their daily diet, and I am sure that a lot of that was lost muscle mass. Even so, I cannot lie and say I was not thrilled. I have gained muscle back since (being able to cook and buy your own food after Stage ROCKS. Hang in there, Future Stagieres, it gets better!), and maybe a few pounds. That being said, since coming here, I almost never think about my body image, except for how to keep it healthy. I relish in peanuts and tuna, and I will not think twice about downing a double cheeseburger in Nouackchott. I also find that Pulaars have a very healthy attitude towards weight. Get too fat and you can't work, and get too thin and you start to become malnourished and too thin to work. Who needs that? Pulaars prefer their women on the meatier side, but unlike Moors, do not force- feed themselves or avoid all physical activities to KEEP weight on. People think it's great that I run everday because it's good for your body, not because it makes you look a certain way(it's pretty cool to have cars full of men cheer you on from the road while you run). And I find that my habits fall along that general trend. Do what's good for your body... that's all you can or should do.
The Body Wars were my biggest culture shock coming home. Every article in ever magazine talked about a celebrity who lost 20 lbs or how YOU TOO can lose weight, or something along those lines. Half of the people I saw at home were on diets and I couldn't believe it. People in Africa are malnourished and starving, and you are deliberately depricing your body of something? You, who have access of every nutrient you could ever want? And of course, there was obesity. Aside from the hugely fat Moor women, obesity like that just does not exist here. It's clear why it does not, but still, it took some getting used to. After 3 hours at home, I started gaining weight. I mean, I can't imagine why! It had NOTHING to do with the 7 plates of chicken I ate at that lunch buffet while I was stranded in a hotel in DC, and certainly nothing to do with the fact that I out cheese on everything, or that I drank a bottle of wine a day. Can you blame me? I hadn't seen such large quantities of chicken, wine, or cheese in 9 months. Still, I looked at all of the jazzercized, skinny women around me, the articles in newspapers and magazines, and felt disgusting. HOW is that possible? Did I get brainwashed in Mauritania, or did it happen coming home?
The point of my long ramblings is this: we, in the West, need to wake up and smell the sugar- free fat- free coffee. If you want to look your best, exercise and take care of yourself. Do NOT go on a sugar- free diet unless you happen to be diabetic. That's ridiculous. Do NOT cut an entire food group out of your diet. Why would someone do that? Why would you make yourself and your body so unhappy on purpose? Mauritanians have no choice. They usually split 2 fish between 10 adults everyday for lunch, and that's the extent of their protein consumption. Food is expensive here and nearly all imported, except for rice... which lacks nutritional value. Seriously people, get over it. I can't see you, but I'm sure that if you are exercising and eating a balanced diet, you feel great, and I would venture a guess that you really do look great too. I'm glad to be back in my Mauritania bubble and not have to deal with all that pressure for another year. That gives me time to practice serenity or chanting or whatever. So that when I do come home, and some moron in a size 2 tells me that she's "off sugar", I don't hall off and slap her right then and there.