The "Diyet" (also known as, WTF is wrong with society?)

There's a lot wrong with this world, but I read something today that made my stomach hurt. A mother blogged about finding a diet plan in her seven-year-old daughter's room. This:

Credit to this link

It brought me to tears for so many reasons. For one, it hits very close to home for me. My eating disorder started when I was about nine, a couple years older than this little girl. But before it did, I did a very similar thing. I clearly remember writing on my calendar which days I had to eat healthy and which days I could eat what I wanted (indicated by the word "pig" for "pig out"). I guess I was planning my binge days even back then. I had an exercise routine for a while that I did along to the music of my Mulan cassette tape. And like the mom who wrote the post, my mom had open discussions with me about body image. One day she even sat me down to explain to me why it was physically impossible for me to look like my Barbies, and why I didn't want to look like those dolls anyway ("Ashley, who wants to walk on their tip toes and have hips you can sit down on?"). But if you've been reading this blog, you have some idea of the course my eating disorder took in the years after that. And when I think about the little girl that I was, really no different than the girl who wrote that note, I am heartbroken.

I wish I could tell her, me, that she doesn't have to hide food from her parents, or feel bad about herself. Or binge. Or restrict. That it's okay if she never looks like any of her friends, because all bodies are different. That there isn't anything wrong with the fact that she developed differently or had a different body type than the girls in her class. That she's beautiful. 

One of my biggest fears is that one day I'll find a note like this in my child's room. Because even though I don't have children yet, I want so much for them to never experience the pain that I've experienced. It is so messed up that we live in a society where parents can do everything right in teaching their children to love and care for their bodies...and then this happens anyway. The little girl in question found out about dieting from another one of her seven-year-old friends...because she was on one. And when I hear things like that, I just wonder...what the hell are we doing? What are we teaching these kids with ridiculous commercials and obscene magazine covers and insane expectations for what a body should look like? I am in no way saying that a girl who writes up a diet plan at age seven is going to end up with serious body image problems or an eating disorder as an adult. Because she will hopefully be just fine. But I can't stand that we live in a world where it is more acceptable to bash your body than to tell people how much you love it. 

So do me a favor, will you? Turn off those ridiculous commercials (Special K, I'm looking at you). Watch how you talk about yourself to other people, especially in front of your kids. Make an effort to love yourself and speak positively over your body and your life. Maybe one day, little girls won't need to write "diyet" plans anymore.