Chocolate, take-aways, salads and fruit

I frowned in the mirror as I looked at my chubby cheeks. I had just come home from my J1 and was a slightly bigger version of the skinny girl who had left 3 months earlier.

Those extra pounds really bothered me.

I had always been skinny. I never thought I was perfect but I had never felt as bad about my body as I did that August.

Within a few weeks of going back to my normal routine I was back to my old skinny self and happy again.

It’s sad that a few extra pounds affect the way we, as women, feel about ourselves.

So many smart and clever young women are left with low self-esteem when they have put on weight when really they have so much more going for them than the measurement of their waist.

I love food. It is the one thing that makes me happy.

Chocolate, take-aways, salads and fruit.

I love it all and I love eating.

I have always been a firm believer that chocolate makes everything better.

And that’s not something I should feel guilty about but I have often indulged in my favourite food only to feel guilty after.

Who wouldn’t feel slightly guilty eating a large McDonalds in front of a friend who hasn’t eaten a carb in three months?

I can’t help my frustration at some of my friend’s obsession with their weight and what they eat.

Young women who have ambition and brains shouldn’t be so obsessed with their weight.

But why is it so many female students have this desperate need to be a skinny, healthy ‘gym bunny’.

I have friends who go on juice diets for days to be skinny.

I don't want to encourage obesity or unhealthy eating but when a size 6 girl is desperate to ‘be skinny’ it shows that something is wrong with the society we live in.

Everyone has something negative to say about themselves. It could be argued that this comes down to the Irish way of laughing off compliments while in the same breath also putting ourselves down.

But when it comes to excluding all carbs from your diet, surviving on omelettes and coffees while studying for serious exams and drinking laxative teas every night amounts to more than just laughing off a compliment.

I have always been skinny enough. I never thought I was fat and was never one to say ‘Oh I’m so fat’ or ‘I need to lose loads of weight’.

Yet, that doesn’t mean the pressure among students today to be in shape hasn’t hit me.

When I came home from an amazing summer on my J1 last year I couldn’t help but hate the extra bit of belly I had and was constantly looking at my slightly chubbier cheeks.

I went on my J1 with two of my best friends and we were broke all summer. Though the girls ate less because they had no money I somehow managd to eat more. As I ate each ice cream while they munched on salads I felt sad about the fact that I was enjoying an ice cream.

Luckily (or as I think to myself) I lost the weight pretty quickly when I got back into my old routine.

But, it was a horrible feeling. It was a sinking feeling of feeling heavier and not as light on my feet.

I felt ugly.

Society shouldn’t make women feel like they are ugly because they have had one too many dominos. Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes and this is something society needs to embrace more.

This isn’t a problem that only women have to face. Men and boys are under pressure to be muscled and toned.

It is good to be healthy and I would not encourage obesity or unhealthy eating.

But we need to be kind to ourselves.

Having 3 coffees for energy and skipping food is not healthy.

We need to ask ourselves: At what point does the obsession with being healthy become unhealthy?