Then: You walk past a guy wearing a t-shirt that says “no fatties”, he’s the fifth guy you’ve seen wearing that in the last two days. You think what a jerk. But he was also wearing a Members Only jacket so you think he must be kind of cool and start to think you might need to lose some weight.
Now: You talk to your trainer at the gym and he asks you if weight loss is one of your goals. You put on a zen smile and tell him no, you are on a journey to body positivity and you just want to be well.
Then: You decide you had better go on a diet so you start looking at the best way to cut calories.
Now: You don’t believe in diets, only lifestyle changes so you start looking at the best way to cut calories from your life.
Then: You decide to go high-carb. You are going to cut out all fats, and eat practically no meat unless it’s fish or boneless, skinless chicken breast. Basically, spaghetti with garlic (no oil) and tomatoes all the time, sometimes with a side of dry toast.
Now: You are going high-protein and healthy fat. You eat no carbs at all if possible. Lots of organic red meat, steak, avocado and cheese.
Then: After a week on the diet you lost five pounds!
Now: A week after changing your lifestyle habits around food you lost five pounds!
Then: You turn on Richard Simmons every morning and start aerobicizing in your living room. When you get good enough at it you will buy a leotard and some leg warmers and join an actual class. You may even try jazzercise, because you dream of joining the Solid Gold dancers. After all, cardio is the only way to lose weight!
Now: You join a yoga studio pretty much as an excuse to wear the five pairs of Lululemon yoga pants you dropped four hundred dollars on; bonus is yoga means you won’t have to do any cardio, after all, you shouldn’t do cardio, you should build muscle to lose weight!
Then: You go over to your neighbors house because her mom has one of those things you stand on and wrap a strap around yourself, it vibrates and is supposed to jiggle the fat off.
Now: You go to a spa to get a full body wrap that is supposed to simply dissolve the fat.
Then: The weekend rolls around so you get together with friends and drink some wine coolers and eat a bunch of chips and brownies. You are back where you started at the beginning of last week.
Now: The weekend rolls around so you get together with friends and drink a few bottles of wine and eat a bunch of chips and brownies. You are back to where you started at the beginning of last week.
Gen X then and now is a weekly column each Monday on Taffeta.com. Read last week’s Gen X then and now back to school.
