2 posts tagged “lifestyle”

     It may seem ridiculous that I, a 5’7’’, size 10 15 year old, want to lose weight.  And I don’t want to give the impression that I am in any way one of the following:

• Anorexic
• Messed up
• Self loathing
• Vain, hoping to receive lots of ‘you’re reaaallly fit’ remarks.

     Thing is, right now I don’t feel fat in terms of the world, just in terms of me.  Looking at photos from even a few months ago I get nauseous, having spent my entire childhood being chubby, when I began to shed the weight aged thirteen or so I was overjoyed, and for the next two years I felt as comfortable as could be with my figure.  My boobs were about the right size, my hipbones stuck out nicely and my jaw was well defined.  I pretty much feel as if I had the perfect figure.

     However, too many drunken nights and subsequent trips to the chip shop soon saw to that.  I joined a gym but, well, like everyone I don’t really go all that much.  I have now developed a double chin, love handles and, worst of all; I don’t fit into many of my clothes from last summer.  This is something that makes me feel completely out of control.
    I just don’t feel quite comfortable with my current figure.  I don’t like the fact that in photos I’m constantly jutting my head out ridiculously so as to avoid a double chin or worse, the huge hunk of fat that makes it look like you have no definition between the collar bone and the jaw.  I don’t like the fact that fat sticks out from the top of my jeans, something I believe is known as ‘muffin top’.  I feel that my entire personality is caught up in being skinny, it just doesn’t work.

     However, for all my ranting, I cannot confess to the existence of a method I wish to follow to carry out my wishes.  My mother has always warned me against yo-yo dieting, saying that unless your personality can manage a consistently healthy lifestyle then it will never work.  I would love to be a diet snob and agree with her, but the sad truth is that I don’t think my personality can manage a constantly healthy lifestyle.  My nocturnal existence/ insomnia means that I am often up snacking into the late hours, my job in a sandwich bar means that most Sundays I am surrounded constantly by fatty sandwiches and cakes, and don’t even talk to me about the gym.

      What we can pretty much conclude from this exercise is that, like a lot of people, I crave the best of both worlds.  However, this is a very unsustainable lifestyle.  That is why, from Monday, I am living a healthy lifestyle so that I can get back to the figure with which I feel most comfortable.  Well, until Wednesday at least.

     Sometimes I have to admit there are times when I do feel very glad to be a citizen of the United Kingdom.  If not for our two national treasures: tea and TOPSHOP, then for the exhilarating pleasure I get out of English country walks, or urban ones come to that.  However, at the moment I am pleased to be British because, well, we have style. 

     Until a couple of years ago I had not really been aware that there was a lot of difference between different European countries’ fashion.  I had pretty much assumed that what was in Vogue in London was the same everywhere.  How naïve I was!

    My first grasp of this incredible difference was when my Spanish pen-friend María came to stay.  All of her clothes were made out of man-made fibres that my mother had forbidden me to wear at an early age (I’ve yet to find out why this was, possibly environmental or ethical reasons, or perhaps just snobbery).  To me this seemed very odd; surely in a hot country the best thing to wear would be light, floaty cotton.  Apparently not.  I was also alarmed that when we went to a gig at a local music venue she seemed to think that 90s style combat trousers and a very odd orange top were suitable.  Considering the general uniform there was skinny jeans and a ‘fang’ (the strange reverse mullet sported by ‘cool’ indie people) she could not have been more wrong.  We got strange looks a plenty.

      It was then time for me to visit Spain.  I was aware that many of her friends were, like many mainland Europeans, into bands such as System of a Down (pronounced seeeeeeestemofadoown) and Placebo (plassssssbow).  However, nothing could have prepared me for what I saw there.  Most of her male friends resembled the kind of guys you might find in your local branch of Games Workshop- slightly awkward looking, with trainers done up too tightly with large bows- and the girls looked like slightly more Mediterranean versions of Avril Lavigne.  Perhaps understandable if she had been my age at the time (thirteen) but no, this girl was eighteen.  What truly made me laugh was that these people were very ‘edgy’ and ‘quirky’.  Most eleven year olds I knew were more hardcore than they were.  These people hung around in ‘gothic’ bars and drunk ‘gothic’ drinks such as Bacardi Breezer, Reef and Smirnoff Ice.  Only drunk here by 12-year-old boys sitting in parks blowing up condoms.  As I say, hardcore.

      My second real experience of poor European fashion was when I went to Sicily last year on my school’s Italian exchange and discovered the horror of what is considered ‘cool’ there.  The status quo of ‘faded’ jeans and puffa jackets was always accessorised with an unflattering white polo neck underneath and, the evil of all fashion evils, a bumbag.  I desperately wanted to give them a shake and say ‘what is wrong with you people’.  I did my best to sort out the situation, I like to think that I brought footless tights to Sicily and, when my exchange came to stay at mine, I bought her some fashion magazines for ‘language practice’.  However, I don’t think that this got through, she spent the entire afternoon raiding the local branch of Primark, not good.

     An exception must be made for the citizens of Paris.  I have ‘cousins’ there so have made a few trips.  Although my ‘cousin’ Sophie dressed very badly, it seemed that really it was just her as her friends dressed well and I was in a state of jubilation at the H&M five minutes away from her house.  For those who don’t know, I am in love with H&M and all its contents.

     So all in all I will make the following statement about European fashion:  travel out of Paris and Milan and you have been sucked in to an abyss of dodgy sportswear and brassiness.  So if you do venture into these places (which I recommend you do, as they are beautiful) ensure that you take precautions.  Firstly, do not look in clothes shops, unless they are international stores such as H&M.  Secondly, stick to your guns.  I plan to be wearing jumper dresses and tweed shorts with black leggings on my next trip to Sicily, I will get strange looks, but I intend on persevering, after all, they think I look like Mischa Barton.  Lastly just don’t ever, ever, ever wear a bumbag.  I would personally come round and kill you.  Thank you.