Be a Shining Star
As a society, we often compare ourselves to unrealistic ideas of what a perfect and attractive body should look like. Most teens, including myself, have gone through the struggle of dieting and “watching your figure”. We all go through popular juice cleanses and try to look like a Barbie doll or that GI Joe that we all had when we were 8. Teens need guidance and support to properly and safely lose weight, and what better way than to get that from another teen. Below I have listed some helpful tips and information to help kick off your journey on a good note.
- Get more sleep
I know… what is sleep? I’ve never heard of this sleep. According to the Sleep Foundation, they estimate that “Biological sleep patterns shift toward later times for both sleeping and waking during adolescence — meaning it is natural to not be able to fall asleep before 11:00 pm.” I know that parents get annoyed with their teens staying up late at night, but teens need 8-10 hours of sleep and it’s quite difficult to do so when you have to wake up at 6 for school. When putting all sleep patterns aside, you have to try to change those sleeping patterns because by sleeping more you burn calories. Crazy right?
- Do the right diets
Popular dieting fads such as the cotton ball diet, breatharian diet, and master cleanse, these are all dangerous and should not be long term. The cotton ball diet includes of delicious set of cotton balls for breakfast, lunch and dinner, which is not effective and can end up messing with bowel movements. The breatharian diet consists of nothing but sunlight, water and tea…which I think Gandhi is the only one to be able to pull this off, but other than that there are no health benefits from this diet besides acting like a plant. The master cleanse diet was formed by the Queen B herself. Beyonce made a cleanse that consists of maple syrup, cayenne, lemon juice and water but while it does work short term you will immediately gain the weight you have lost. Take into consideration normal and healthy diets like being a vegan, pescatarian, vegetarian or even going on the ketogenic diet. All have been proven to work effectively and just in case you don’t want to do any of those diets, just simply look up “Healthy recipes”.
- Exercise more
Most teens hate the idea of exercise while some do it on a regular basis. I know so many people at my high school who feel so much more energized and happier after they’ve exercised and it’s almost become an addiction. It definitely takes time to make a routine but starting off with things like running or biking is an easy introduction to the world of exercise. It’s a scary place at first but remember, it takes 21-28 days to form a habit. So do your research and figure out what type of exercise is right for and what you want to try to improve yourself upon. Every type of exercise has a purpose.
- Log off
I cannot stress this enough. I think it’s extremely important to ignore social media while dieting or exercising because subconsciously everyone tries to compare themselves to others and you don’t want to do that. Most people will naturally go on Instagram or Snapchat first thing in the morning. Don’t do that, instead go take a shower or make yourself a nice healthy breakfast. This experience should not be about tearing yourself down but building yourself up.
I’m honestly very grateful to have a platform to express my thoughts and feelings on important subjects like this. I want teens to have a place where they can feel safe and happy. We all need to start supporting each other and you shouldn’t have to feel like you have to change yourself for anyone but yourself. YOU do it for YOU! Someone once told me to be the shining star that I was born to be. I know it sounds weird but that’s what I want to get across in this article. Live your life and love yourself and don’t let anyone tell you differently.