Remember health class? I spent most of it trying not to look at my teacher in his too-short, too-loose shorts when he stood in unfortunate and potentially revealing positions, *shudder* so I don't remember a bunch, but here's what was really important (though we ran over it so fast at the time that it didn't really sink in with me) and we should be working harder on getting this into kids' heads:
There are 3 basic body types. Some people are one straight-out type and some are a mixture. Names and short descriptions below.
Mesomorph - these are the super athletic people. Born to be muscular, heroes in gym class, fun to look at pretty much all the time. They enjoy exercise. Think Mr. Universe, or the coolest jock in your school. Got it? That's them.
Ectomorph - these are the twiggy people who "can't gain weight." They have skinny everythings. Supermodels almost inevitably come from this category (or so I read, and I tend to agree).
Endomorph - these are the ones who can be described as "curvy" or "rounded." They gain fat more easily than the other two types, though they also gain muscle pretty easily. Their fat tends to settle in their bellies, hips and thighs.
That's Karen's short summary of the types. For a more in-depth look at each type, including workout suggestions, diet suggestions, very cool and realistic but slightly disturbing generated pictures in all 3 body types of a naked guy without ummm one essential part, and a bit of humor too, go here. I really recommend it.
I know for sure that I am an endomorph - no mix here. Anyone who knows me or sees me for even a few minutes would know that, and probably would have known it even back when I could shop in the normal size departments.
My very first awareness of food and diet issues was not condemning - in 5th grade I experimented accidentally with eating less, and found that my stomach shrunk and I couldn't eat as much. It fascinated me. That was the first, last and only food and diet issue that wasn't a struggle in my life.
Shortly thereafter, I realized my thighs were huge compared to my best friend's. It really bothered me. I've thought in years since that she must have just been an ectomorph, but my mom told me last night that she has a little belly now...so maybe she's some kind of mix. I don't know. I just know that's when I started feeling Really Not Good about how I looked. Pictures of that time in my life (if I weren't so lazy, I'd find them and scan them in here) reveal that I was not heavy at all. I wish I had known that at the time.
Then a bit later (7th grade) my mom decided to work on her weight (she's an endomorph too). She brought home fitness magazines and they were filled with (probably airbrushed) completely beautiful people, as well as diet pills and diet shakes powder. I thumbed through the magazines and felt like a cow. In response, I started taking over the counter diet pills and trying to skip school lunch.
The problem with trying to skip school lunch is you get so hungry. My friends all shared from their plates, and in the end I think most days I ate more than I would have if I'd have just bought a lunch already. That year I went from 96 pounds to 126 pounds in about 6 months. I had stretch marks at the tops of my thighs and the school nurse asked when she weighed me if I'd been "eating rock soup." Now mind you I was already 5'2" by then, so at 126 I wasn't exactly Java the Hutt...but that's what I felt like.
Well I am realizing that this is crossing from body types over into whole other issues, so let's get back to the subject at hand. Fifth or sixth grade - THAT'S when schools and parents should press in and teach their kids about body types...or at least that's the latest it should be done. I know that the worst beginnings of my battle with food are tied to my awakened consciousness of how much I didn't look like the skinny girls or the athletes in my class. Maybe if I'd been equipped with a lot of reality on body types - how we look, how we can't look (I'll never have ectomorph thighs, no matter how much weight I lose), how we can best manage the body we have....maybe I wouldn't have spent the rest of my life since then failing the diet and exercise test.
But then maybe I'm wrong about that.
Just in case, if you have a grade-schooler...tell them, okay? If they're an endomorph, you might save them a whole lot of pain. And if they're one of the other 2, you might help them see others more mercifully (there ain't much mercy in junior high).
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