It hurt my heart to look at her. She had SO much surgery done!

I started to wonder what happened to her? Was it the fame of her sister Kim, getting so much attention and her getting left with a husband in rehab getting caught with prostitutes? Was it her mother pushing her, because she’s built differently than Kim? I don’t know, but for a minute I felt sorry for her.

When she walked across the stage, her ass didn’t move. Now I know women who have big natural booties. When they walk their ass has a conversation! Her’s didn’t speak.

But the thing that made me hurt even more was the fact that she has millions of people following and learning from her and her family.

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I see the effects when I have potential clients coming to me trying to get what I like to call “plastic surgery enhanced bodies,” asking if I can make them look like “so and so”. And I have to honestly tell them “Nope! I’m not a plastic surgeon.“

These images of celebrities doing whatever it takes to look ‘perfect’ have infiltrated our mainstream expectations, so much that we don’t even know what normal is anymore.

The most famous Instagram “fitness models/experts” that we see have had some sort of cosmetic surgery. How much sense does that make? You’re a fitness professional selling manufactured results for a body that you bought? Isn’t it your job to illustrate what the body could do if you put in the work? But here you are with your tummy tucked, pec/breast and butt implants???

Yes this applies to the males too.

I used to just shake my head in silence for the longest time, but I was so happy to see a young man @younggwhite post on his Twitter a while back:
“stop using these Dr. Miami produced bodies as the stamp for all women lol y'all get grossed out by a real natural body”.

It’s true. Sometimes I look at my own body, which is unique to me, and think; I wish my waist was smaller, I wish my hips were wider so I wouldn’t be shaped like a teenaged boy.

But then I look at these great looking celebrities succumbing to the pressure to look a certain way, so they get the work done, and people STILL criticize them.

So when will it stop? Will we ever be happy with our bodies?

Even if your parents told you, you could be anything you want when you grow up; they were mostly talking about your mental ability to climb imaginary ladders.

I know I didn’t have a lot of body positive motivations. My mom was always on a diet while my dad and us kids could eat anything we wanted. But when we reached our teen years things changed.

I always say that teenage girls are the meanest people on the planet. But I realized they are like this because they are hungry. Because they are usually watching their figure.

When a teenage boy eats a lot he’s a “growing boy”. But during puberty, teenage girls are placed in a lottery. This is when they find out if they are going to get the boobs or booty they asked for. And depending on how that lottery goes, it defines their worth for at least the next 4-6 years.

So what do we do now that we know all this?

It starts from childhood. Make exercise the norm in your household. Because I exercised with my mother as a child, exercise has always been a part of my life.

I love my body the most when it’s at work. When you understand how your body works and see what it’s capable of, the size of your thighs or arms matters less.

Of course the physical will still matter, but it won’t be the main focus. The functionality of it will start to over-power the visual aesthetic and you will start to accept your body in its natural state of beauty.

It is our responsibility as parents, Aunties, Uncles, teachers and mentors, to instill a sense of value by leading by example and promoting their natural assets. This translates, from your crooked pinkie toes, to the kink in your hair. All of these assets are naturally you, passed on from previous generations, with love.

Exercise because it will make you stronger and increase your quality of life. If you get a six-pack, great. If you have love handles (like me) then embrace them. But throw out the scale, those numbers don’t mean anything.

Count the days that you commit to health. Those are endless!

In Fitness and Health,

Devon M. D. Jones, PTS