Food is our ally: a reflection on quarantine fat phobia
A few days ago I bought a book, in which the author tells of a period lived in China during which she found refuge in an Italian restaurant, to feel a little closer to home.
"Food is your ally. It is others who want to make you think the" opposite " he writes, giving me enormous food for thought. The same click you do when you hit the spot on something you've been struggling with for a long time.
Why do we continue with this ridiculous and eternal fight against food? We count calories, we rely on the magical powers of superfoods, we demonize carbohydrates, we banish fried food.
Today, compared to a few years ago, we are all aware of the fact that there are so many different forms of beauty that it is literally impossible to choose one and impose it on everyone.
Even the world of fashion, which has always been at the forefront of supporting unwritten rules on female bodies, is finally realizing how beautiful diversity is:
I am beautiful
Stella Pecollo, who wrote the book "Io sono bella" published by Sperling & Kupfer, is an international performer of films, musicals and TV series. She recites, sings, dances, has traveled half the world, taught English and does what she loves for a living. Despite her wonderful resume Stella, like so many other women, has lived for years at war with herself fighting against her body and against food, as if they were weeds to be eradicated, enemies to be defeated. And not because she didn't particularly like herself, but because since she was a child, her weight seemed to be a problem for everyone around her.
Until, one day, she realized that if it wasn't a problem for her or her health, why should it be for others?
Her book is a real love story except that there are no vampires or Mr. Gray. Here we talk about self-love, being beautiful, powerful, unique and incredible and loving each other a little more every day!
Find the book "I am beautiful" by Stella Pecollo at € 15.20 on Amazon
The insane and unmotivated fear of gaining weight during quarantine
Food is our ally and never as in this period of lockdown should we have understood it.
Starting from the moment of the shopping that, for months, was our only contact with the real world.
Not to mention the comfort food. The social feeds were teeming with pizzas, cakes, focaccias and delights of all kinds, to fill that void created by the lack of conviviality and certainties, during this very long lockdown that seemed to us to last forever.
But between one recipe and another I saw the usual insidious and redundant jokes (and I'm not talking about memes and parodies, because those are very funny if they are interpreted with the right spirit) of women obsessed with their shape.
"Today for dinner only fat-free yogurt and in the afternoon a two-hour cardio workout, otherwise I will become a whale". Stop. Here we need a good reflection.
It is true, staying at home for three months without ever leaving the sofa or walking is not a particularly healthy prospect of life. Not to mention that the absence of movement has very strong repercussions on our psyche. The problem is upstream and Stella Pecollo often repeats it in the book: why is overweight immediately associated with total laziness and an unhealthy diet?
Let me introduce myself: I'm Marianna, I'm 28 and my size varies from 48 to 50. I have a healthy life: I walk a lot to get to work, I almost always go out on foot and when I can I go swimming. I love to cook those "grandmother's dishes", for lunch I eat salad, for dinner I eat whatever I want and sometimes even ice cream. During the quarantine I approached yoga and pilates and basically, I feel beautiful.
Other times I feel less beautiful but then I think that to "be thin", considering that I've never been thin, I would have a life of culinary deprivation, perennial workouts and very expensive beautician subscriptions to drain, flatten, thin. Am I ready for this life? No.
Honestly, it saddens me to think of giving up fried chicken forever on those Friday nights when my partner and I feel too tired at the thought of cooking or the fresh mozzarella that my parents make me find when I return to Puglia. At the glass of wine with friends, at ice cream with cream with my little sister. To sleep more on Saturdays rather than go to the gym.
Attention: there are those who want to change and try hard and this is fine. Nobody has to live in a body they don't like. But we must learn that what is good for us is not good for everyone and that there is nothing more toxic than imposing one's idea of beauty on the people around us.
We don't teach our daughters to eat less because she is "more feminine". We teach them to listen to their body, to understand what it needs. To be constant in life and not just in the diet. To respect others and to embrace diversity.
I am beautiful, Stella Pecollo is beautiful, we are all beautiful, different, unique. We are a large, peaceful and colorful army. We come from different stories, different cultures, distant and different cities but do you know what is the easiest and fastest way to get to know each other and feel closer? The food.
