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weight loss

Identity

Woman posts dramatic before-and-after pics of one pound loss to prove that weight is meaningless

It's almost as if the numbers on the scale don't mean anything at all.

Adrienne Osuna is a fitness blogger with a focus on weight training. After years of struggling with her weight, this mother of four finally got serious about her health, adopting a rigorous schedule of power lifting, cardio, and intermittent fasting to lose weight, gain muscle, and kick ass.

And while her personal regimen might be a little too ambitious for most of us, she's still inspiring—because she keeps it real.

An image she posted on her blog is going viral for pointing out that focusing on your weight is a misleading goal. The before-and-after pic shows her before she started lifting and after—a complete physical transformation which resulted in a staggering one pound of weight loss.

I know what you're thinking—that's two pounds! Well, I can explain.

After Osuna's pic was copied from her blog, it blew up all over the internet—on Facebook, Twitter, Imgur, and more.

Youtube Mix GIF - Find & Share on GIPHYGiphy

After she went viral she made another Instagram post revealing she was actually a pound heavier in the after photo. Unfortunately, that post has since been made private.

She would later explain that she felt it was important to reclaim her image because it had been used in advertisements for weight loss products, and that's not what she's about.

"But I DID NOT use anyone's products to do this," she wrote in a post which since been made private. "This was all hard work in the gym lifting heavy weights and intermittent fasting.

Kudos to Ms. Osuna for getting the word out—fitness isn't about a number, it's about having awesome muscles you could use to punch a hole through a plaster wall.

This article was originally published on 12.22.22 by our partners at someecards and was written by Matt Nedostup.

From Your Site Articles

weight loss

Family

Mom reacts perfectly to daughter who disinvited a friend from a trip because of her weight

She didn’t want the girl to “ruin” her photos of the trip.

via Cottonboro Studios/Pexels

A mother confronts her daughter for judging her friend's weight.

A 42-year-old mother wondered whether she did the right thing by disciplining her 18-year-old daughter, Abby, who disinvited a friend from vacation because of her weight. The mother asked people on Reddit for their opinion.

For some background, Abby had struggled with her weight for many years, so she went to her mother for help. The two set up a program where Abby was given a reward for every milestone she achieved.

“Four months ago, she asked that I don't get her any more rewards and add it up to her birthday gift, and for her gift she wants a vacation I will pay for, for her and her friends instead of the huge party I had promised for her 18th. I said OK,” the mother wrote.

So, instead of a series of small gifts, Abbey wanted one large one, a vacation with two of her friends. The vacation would also celebrate Abby’s 18th birthday. The mother agreed and booked the trip for the 3 girls.

“Fast forward to last weekend, we started preparing for her vacation,” the mother wrote. “I called the other two girls' parents to confirm the girls would be and learned Abby's best friend Betty isn't going. Betty loves traveling and was looking forward to the vacation, so I asked why. Apparently, Abby uninvited her because ‘she is too chubby to look good in pictures.’”

When the mother approached Abby about the situation, she doubled down on her comments to Betty. “I calmly talked to Abby and reminded her how Betty would feel being left out for such a reason, and she went off with, 'I didn't work so hard for this vacation so my pictures will be ruined,'" the mother wrote.

Abby then asked Betty to contact her mom and say that she decided not to go on the trip because she wasn’t feeling well. Betty refused to lie, and Abby sent her a “ton of hateful texts and body-shaming insults.” Betty shared screenshots of the texts to the mother, and she promptly canceled the entire vacation.

Now, Abby’s father, who shares 50-50 custody with the mother, is livid, and Abby won’t speak to the mother. The mom asked the Reddit AITA forum to see if she was in the wrong, and the commenters overwhelmingly said she did the right thing. "Some of my friends agree on my approach, while others think I should have put my daughter first,” the mother said.

The most popular commenter was short and to the point.

"Teaching your daughter to not be a horrible human being IS putting her first," Due_Laugh_3851 wrote. "I commend your strength and parenting skills. This was the right thing to do and would've been hard to do. Well done, you deserve to go on the holiday yourself," Loud_Wallaby737 added.

"... uninviting someone because you only want skinny people in your pictures is a disgusting attitude frankly. Sorry, I just don't find a nicer word for it. I am totally with you that this needs to have consequences, and while I'm very much against breaking promises, I do believe this is an exception. Like you said, your daughter knows what it feels like. She (but anyone really) should be supportive of friends wanting to lose weight if that is the case and if it isn't they she should just mind her own ~~business~~ body," SensitiveSires wrote.

One of the few people who thought she was in the wrong believed that the mother set her daughter up for failure.

"[You're wrong] for giving your daughter who is a child rewards for weight loss. Her behavior of value based on weight shows she likely has developed disordered eating patterns and attitudes and this will cause her a lifetime of pain," tamtheprogram wrote.

The silver lining to the story is that many people who commented said that even though her daughter did something very hurtful, she’s still a teenager and there’s a chance she’ll realize the error of her ways.

"The daughter is just a teenager, she still has a lot of time to learn and grow up. Writing off her entire future as a mean girl when it’s very rare to be the same exact person you were at 18 as you grow up is a lot," Stephapeaz wrote.

This article originally appeared on 9.18.23

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parenting

Health

Simple 'Lazy Girl Fitness' hack can help you have a gym routine that sticks

It's backed by science.

via Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

A woman working out at the gym wearing headphones.

In 2018, author James Clear released “Atomic Habits,” a book about making significant changes through building small habits. The book's takeaway is that you don’t have to commit to drastic, overnight changes to improve yourself. You can do so by slowly working your way towards a goal.

"All big things come from small beginnings,” Clear writes in the book. “The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow. The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time."

TikTokker Ashie Adams has a similar theory she calls the Lazy Girl Fitness hack. She says people can create a regular fitness routine by breaking a trip to the gym down into 2 distinct events instead of one that feels overwhelming.

“It’s my secret formula for making becoming a gym girlie happen,” she explains. "When you start working out, actually getting to the gym is 90% of the battle. You have to treat the action of getting to the gym and the action of working out as 2 completely separate habits.”

I never hear anyone talk about this so its my burden to bear i guess 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

@ashieadams
I never hear anyone talk about this so its my burden to bear i guess 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻 #fitness #fitnesstips #fitnesshacks #weightloss #weightlosstransformation #weightlossprogress #lifting

Ashie then breaks down the two distinct tasks: “Getting to the gym is a matter of waking up early, finding the time to do it, finding your workout clothes [and] getting out of the door on time,” she says in a video with over 500,00 views. “Working out is a matter of having the motivation and having the right workout program. But one cannot exist without the other, so the first habit to develop is just getting to the gym.”

The Utah mother says that for the first 30 days, people should focus on getting to the gym and little else. If you leave the car and enter the gym try walking on the treadmill for 15 to 20 minutes. Then, slowly, once you’ve mastered getting to the gym, you can start developing a workout routine.

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A post shared by Ash Powers (@ashieadams)

Ashie says that this 2-step technique allowed her to build a positive gym habit without getting overwhelmed and quitting after a few days.

“Nine times out of 10, when I tried and failed to create the habit of going to the gym, it was because I was completely overwhelming myself,” she says in the video. “I wasn’t trying to do one new thing, which is work out. I was doing 40 things, [which] is genuinely too much for one person to undertake all in one go.”

The 2-step Lazy Girl Fitness hack doesn’t just sound easy and effective, it’s based on solid scientific principles. According to neurology researchers, micro-habits are one of the easiest ways to develop new routines. Micro-habits are small, regular behavioral changes that are easy to build into a routine because they don’t encourage psychological resistance and won’t disappear as willpower erodes.

Eventually, these new behaviors, such as driving to the gym or having a glass of water when you wake up every morning, become hard-wired into the brain, and you’ll start doing them without thinking. That’s when the real change begins to take place.

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life hacks

Pop Culture

Woman who went from a size 18 to a size 6 gets candid about her newfound 'skinny privilege'

"When I speak, people tend to listen more."

@megmackenzies/TikTok

“Skinny privilege is a thing, and even I find myself taking advantage of it.”

There are many different types of social privilege. We most often talk about the privilege associated with class, race or sex, but the inherent advantages of being thin are certainly substantial as well.

Take a 3-second scroll through your social media platform of choice, and you’ll see the endless messages—both insidious and overt—that glorify thin and/or muscular bodies while shaming other body types. Having a body that is celebrated by society offers benefits like respectability, kindness and even better health care. That is thin privilege, aka skinny privilege, in a nutshell.

And if there’s any doubt as to whether or not this privilege exists, take it from those who have lost weight and were suddenly treated differently (read: better).

Meg Stier, an actress and motivational speaker based in New York, is one of those people. Stier recently got candid about all the unexpected changes that came after she went from a size 18 to a size 6 in a video posted to her TikTok.

And while Stier noted that this was “not an attack on skinny people,” adding that they have their own problems too, her stance was clear that—at least in her own experience—skinny privilege definitely exists, and we need to talk about it.

@megmackenzies Anyone else experince these things? #bodyacceptance #nyc #bodypositivity #performer #lifestyle #weightloss ♬ original sound - Meg Mackenzies

The list included conveniences like being able to find her size in any store to being shown more basic human decency, like people looking her in the eye when they speak to her and actually listening when she speaks.

Even her career “took off” the moment she lost weight. “I didn’t suddenly become more talented, smarter or better at my job,” she said. “I just looked different.”

In fact, Stier can now make the same lifestyle choices she made when she was larger without outside judgment, simply because she looks different.

“Nobody judges when I order a cheeseburger or a salad. I can literally eat whatever I want in public, and nobody thinks twice about it” she revealed. She can also go to the gym without people giving her sympathetic looks.

“People considered me unmotivated, unhealthy, and in general just lazy because I was bigger. Those are three words that no one would use to describe me now, and my lifestyle really hasn't changed that much," she said.

“There’s a serious bias against fat people, and unless you’ve lived on both sides of the spectrum it’s hard to fully grasp what that means,” she concluded. “Skinny privilege is a thing, and even I find myself taking advantage of it.”

Stier is not alone in her experience. Her video received a ton of comments from other people who had lost weight and were treated better because of it. Some even shared the congratulations they got after losing weight due to illness.

Not only that, but there are literally thousands of videos on TikTok under the hashtags #skinnyprivilege and #thinprivilege reflecting similar stories, all attesting that it is in fact a real thing. Many even reflected on what it was like to gain some weight back and return to being “invisible.”

@itsmekelsc Today I chose the sassy life 💁🏼‍♀️ but it had to be said. The difference in treatment from strangers is WILD #weightbias #obesitybias #skinnyprivledge #obesity #weightloss #weightlossjourney #pcos #pcosawareness #mounjaro #ozempic ♬ original sound - Kelsey ✨

As with all forms of societal privilege, addressing the issue starts with spreading awareness. Social media might add to the problem with the way it often sells the idea of thinness and beauty as status enhancers, but it can also be a great tool in ending stigma as well. Conservations like the one Stier and others are having helps us take a closer look at our own beliefs and hopefully challenge them.

We’ve already seen the ways challenging the status quo can create actual change. The exploitative nature of capitalism aside, think about all the brands that have adapted to a more diverse, inclusive beauty standard due to real people taking a stand. Think of how much more body neutrality is a part of our collective mindset than it was only a few short years ago. Clearly, we still have ways to go, but part of progress is getting real with what’s in front of us.

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body image

Popular

Jessica Simpson is pushing back on praise for 'snapping back' after pregnancy weight gain

upload.wikimedia.org

The process of getting your body to return to normal after delivering a baby can take time.

Most bodies don't just "snap back," and it can take from six to eight months for the average woman to feel mostly recovered from having a baby. It's also totally normal to retain weight after giving birth. Most women keep on 11 or more pounds. But there's still a stigma on postpartum bodies. As if the pressure that comes with having a newborn child isn't bad enough, women are also often pressured to make their bodies trim and slim faster than is medically safe.

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When Jessica Simpson was pregnant with her third child, Birdie Mae, she was open about the changes in her body. Simpson would post photos of her swelling belly and swollen feet on Instagram.

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RELATED: Here are the ways your body changes when you're pregnant that nobody talks about

Simpson was delightfully honest, saying she weighed 240 pounds. She even posted a photo of the toilet seat she broke, because that's something What to Expect When You're Expecting conveniently leaves out.

See on Instagram

After Simpson gave birth to Birdie Mae in 2019, she continued to be open and honest about her postpartum experiences. Simpson posted photos of her workouts. "I am working really hard right now," she told People at the time. "It's not easy at all, but I am determined to feel good. I have been doing a lot of walking — getting my steps in not only burns calories but it also helps me clear my head and get focused."

See on Instagram

Six months after giving birth, she posted a posted a photo of her body after losing 100 pounds of baby weight. Commenters on Instagram praised Simpson for "snapping back."

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RELATED: James Van Der Beek's pregnancy announcement casually helps destigmatize miscarriages

In her new book, Open Book, Simpson reveals that she didn't post photos of her body to get compliments for snapping back. "Even now, people [are] commenting on my Instagram, 'Oh, snap back?' No, it wasn't a snap back and I don't even know what that word means," Simpson wrote in Open Book. "It's like, I work hard and when I work out, a lot of it is to release anxiety. That's one of my tools for sobriety. Just walking, just going and talking, walking and talking with my husband. Even some of my biggest fans…They're saying it as a compliment, but it's like, that's not what I was trying to get with this picture but okay."

Ultimately, Simpson is glad that extra weight doesn't carry as much weight as it used to. "I just thank God times are changing a little bit and people are standing up for themselves and making it not all about body image. I can hopefully be part of the change that my daughters grow up in a world where she can accept herself at any size," Simpson wrote.

Having a healthy postpartum body is more important than having a skinny postpartum body, and it's refreshing to see more and more celebrities acknowledge that.

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Man has sweetest reaction to postpartum fiancé wearing dress - Upworthy ›

Forever 21 facing backlash from plus-size customers who received diet bars with their online orders

Creative Commons

Fat shaming has never been in style, and yet, the fashion industry seems to have it on lock.

Many Forever 21 customers have reported they've received samples of Atkins' new line of lemon bars with their plus-sized clothing orders. The bars are touted as a way to "treat yourself without worrying about your carb count." Yikes.

Needless to say, the free sample did notgo over well. Many customers feel as if the fast fashion retailer is trying to subtly tell them they need to lose weight.

RELATED: Macy's pulls plates from their stores for sending a 'toxic message'

— (@)

Forever 21 responded, saying they aren't trying to target people who ordered plus-sized clothes. Everyone got the Atkins bar samples, and they're in fact not trying to tell people, "Hey, you could really stand to lose a few pounds." The retailer has since apologized for including the bar in their shipments.

"From time to time, Forever 21 surprises our customers with free test products from third parties in their e-commerce orders. The freebie items in question were included in all online orders, across all sizes and categories, for a limited time and have since been removed," Forever 21 said in a statement, per Buzzfeed News. "This was an oversight on our part and we sincerely apologize for any offense this may have caused to our customers, as this was not our intention in any way."

RELATED: Man exposes the absurdity of sexist marketing by creating shirts that label men like we do women

Regardless, it's still not a good look. The presence of the bar insinuates there's something wrong with the customer – regardless of their size. Opening a box to find a diet bar is going to make people feel like trash about their figure, even if there's nothing wrong with them.

We love the fun of getting surprised with free samples with our clothes, but Forever 21 should think harder about what they include next time.

An inspiring couple shows off the success of working together for healthy weight loss.

via Fat Girl Fed Up

According to US News & World Report, over 80% of people fail at their New Year's resolutions by February.

Author and clinical psychologist Joseph Luciani says it's because we eventually lose motivation and that outside-in solutions rarely work unless we've changed on the inside.

"Unless you first change your mind, don't expect your health goals to materialize," Luciani says. "As the saying goes, it's not the horse that draws the cart, it's the oats. It's not the gym, Pilates class or diet that will change you – it's your mind."

Lexi and Danny Reed, newlyweds from Indiana clearly changed their collective minds and it resulted in the couple losing a combined 400 pounds. It all started on New Year's Day in 2017.

"We had no idea exactly how we were going to lose the weight or if we would make it - but we were determined to try," Lexi wrote. "We knew that together anything was possible."

In just one year and six months, 500-pound Lexi lost 303 pounds because she fell in love with taking care of herself.

"I found the secret to weight loss was working hard in the gym 5x a week for 30 mins or moving more," she wrote on Instagram. "I found that I could take the unhealthy foods I loved and make them into healthy versions. I found that by focusing on each day not the 300+lbs I had to lose the days added up & I was making progress."

The couple's love for one another helped them achieve their goals.

"I am forever grateful for the way he's loved me no matter what size and never asked me to change," Lexi wrote on Instagram. He treated me the same exact way when I was heavy that he does not that I'm healthy. When I agreed to be his wife I agreed to spending the rest of my life with him and I'm so glad we have lost 392 lbs together and gained many years to do just that."

After her stunning weight loss, Lexi began sharing the inspiring photos of her and her husband's journey on an Instagram page called Fat Girl Fed Up and it's earned over a million followers.

Earlier this year, Lexi had to have surgery to remove painful excess skin on her body.

The couple's dramatic transformation shows just how powerful it is when people support one another in their goals. It's a good reminder to take a look at the people in our lives and ask if they are helping us become the person we want to be or are they holding us back.

From Your Site Articles

weight loss

Woman posts dramatic before-and-after pics of one pound loss to prove that weight is meaningless

It's almost as if the numbers on the scale don't mean anything at all.

After Osuna's pic was copied from her blog, it blew up all over the internet—on Facebook, Twitter, Imgur, and more.

Mom reacts perfectly to daughter who disinvited a friend from a trip because of her weight

She didn’t want the girl to “ruin” her photos of the trip.

Simple 'Lazy Girl Fitness' hack can help you have a gym routine that sticks

It's backed by science.

I never hear anyone talk about this so its my burden to bear i guess 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

Woman who went from a size 18 to a size 6 gets candid about her newfound 'skinny privilege'

"When I speak, people tend to listen more."

Jessica Simpson is pushing back on praise for 'snapping back' after pregnancy weight gain

RELATED: Here are the ways your body changes when you're pregnant that nobody talks about

RELATED: James Van Der Beek's pregnancy announcement casually helps destigmatize miscarriages

Forever 21 facing backlash from plus-size customers who received diet bars with their online orders

RELATED: Macy's pulls plates from their stores for sending a 'toxic message'

RELATED: Man exposes the absurdity of sexist marketing by creating shirts that label men like we do women

An inspiring couple shows off the success of working together for healthy weight loss.

According to US News & World Report, over 80% of people fail at their New Year's resolutions by February.

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