The Truth About "The Beautiful People"

I wonder how many people looked at me when I looked like this, and thought "I wish I could look like that"?? Perhaps I even inspired people to work out more or diet harder to get abs like I had? With my hot-as boyfriend beside me, a set of incredible abs and a fit, lean body I was the picture of fitness and health.

Or was I?

Yes, we all look to "the beautiful people" and wish we could look like them, we strive to look like them. We make new years resolutions to be healthy and fit - we even put pictures of celebrities up on our bathroom mirror, the fridge, a "wish collage" to remind us to work harder to be like those people we admire.

Why is it then, that it is so hard? Why aren't there more people running around looking like this? Why are only a minority of people this fit and healthy? Such a small portion of the population that look so hot?

The truth about "the beautiful people" is that many of them are far from beautiful, far from happy - and very, VERY far from healthy. They take drugs, vomit, starve, abuse their bodies with unhealthy "eating" plans and excessive exercise regimes.

"The beautiful people", you know the ones, like the twenty-something girl at the gym with a full face of make-up. She's part of the "in crowd", she has hair extensions, eyelash extensions, acrylic nails, fake tan, and gets on the treadmill with her very VERY short shorts and crop top. She walks on the treadmill at about 3 km/hr while reading a gossip mag, and regularly checks out the guys doing weights whilst flicking her hair.

This is different to athletes and sportspeople who are DEDICATED to their sport/health. "The beautiful people" are OBSESSED with their looks - at any cost. Their lives are solely focused on their looks and the image they portray - their self-worth depends on it, and without their looks they feel they have nothing. There is a big difference between the two things.

When I looked like this people would ask me what I do to look so amazing - I couldn't tell them the truth!!! The beautiful people don't tell the truth - they can't! There was no way I could tell people the truth - I was so worried about people finding out the "real me". The "real me" wasn't as together as I seemed, my life wasn't as amazing as it appeared, my relationship with my "hot boyfriend" was not good, he was critical of my looks and made me feel insecure, like I wasn't attractive enough despite being stunning.

How did I look that stunning?

Lets see, back then I was getting up at 4:30 am in the dark, taking speed-like drugs with other stimulant drugs first thing, I took a drug made for people with a thyroid condition (potentially damaging my thyroid for life) and topped it off with some horse drugs, all supposedly to burn fat (that I didn't have!). I then headed off to the gym for a cardio session before heading back home for a protein shake then off to work. I found that these drugs all made me shake so hard that I couldn't write - my hand wasn't steady enough to pen my own name! So rather than stop this madness, no, my boyfriend who got me onto all of this stuff, would put the horse drugs in my water bottle so I could drink it over the day so as not to get as big a "hit" at once and slightly lessen the shaking. I would then come home from work, inject myself with more horse drugs and head back to the gym for more cardio and then some serious weight training. I couldn't sleep because I was on so many stimulants, so I lived on 3-4 hours sleep every day of the week.

Then, what to do on weekends? Well, gym, solarium, then securing some more drugs to go out nightclubbing and dancing all night. My boyfriend, who was a very big ecstacy user introduced me to this, explaning that drinking is bad because it has calories, and recommended I take ecstacy so I don't get fat. We would even take a protein shake to drink through the evening so we didn't lose muscle.

Being one of "the beautiful people" I was privy to all the other "beautiful people" and their lives. "Beautiful people" share with other "beautiful people" their "beauty" secrets ie the various drugs and starvation techniques to stay "beautiful" with each other - because we all did it. But never ever would they tell non-beautiful people, no, they judge us because they don't know any better, they're not one of us anyway.

I saw a girl, a tiny, thin, top-of-the-chain of "the beautiful people", in the girls toilet of a dance club on the Gold Coast, trying to swallow two ecstasy tablets. She had already had six - six!!!! Six pills for such a tiny girl is tempting Death to knock on the door. This girl was complaining to us other "beautiful people" that she couldn't get these two pills down because her body kept vomiting them back up.

Ahhh, do you think your body is trying to tell you something??

Such is the mentality of "the beautiful people". She was an obsessive exerciser and had anorexia, yet she was revered for her tiny body. She looked amazing, and had it all - on the outside. At that time I also had a close friend who had had anorexia since a young girl, she told me anorexia is awesome because if she gets too fat (she was a size 6) she can just starve herself and get back into shape. This girl was the most stunning girl I had ever seen - still is. She was tiny and blonde and had the prettiest face, needed no make up - and her boyfriend was the hottest guy Ive ever seen - so gorgeous! I envied them, they were gorgeous, lovely, and stunning. I wanted their life. But, they both lived at the gym - twice a day 6 days a week, they both took ecstasy, he was on steroids, and she was anorexic. Beautiful - on the outside.

My own father got me using "fantasy", also known as GHB these days, or grievous bodily harm. I was 19 years old. He said I should take it because it's made from amino acids and keeps your muscle so you don't lose any - unlike speed, which he was giving me to take as well, which supposedly eats your muscle away.

I have a bachelor of exercise science now and I'm pretty sure those theories are a bunch of you-know-what.

I don't know, maybe don't give your daughter drugs and encourage her to take them all the time. Just a thought.

What about the "beautiful people" guys? They work out really hard training at the gym lifting big weights right? Wrong.

The truth about the male half of "the beautiful people" is that yes, they do train hard - but lots of them are on drugs too. Steroids, horse drugs, recreational drugs, and a whoooooole bunch of other nasty things. Ive known big guys who have stuck so many steriod-filled needles into their shoulders that the needle bends when going in because there is so much scar tissue. A lot of them take insulin to supposedly "make the muscle take in more fuel". Holy crap! They re taking a drug that if taken just a tiny bit too much, can kill them! Guys who gag as they shove food into their mouths because their body does not want more food. Guys that are obsessed with the mirror, tanning, shaving, training, eating, sleeping, recovering, and putting dangerous drugs into their bodies every day. Even a whole bunch of the lean, smaller guys are on drugs. I was astonished to find out some of the guys I knew around were on steroids too. Do you know how long these guys spend in front of the mirror stressing because their arms look small? Do you know they do push-ups before going out so their chests look bigger? That they do tricep dips on the toilet seat of the nightclub to make their arms look bigger? Yep, Ive seen all this too.

So, do those "beautiful people" still look so beautiful to you? Do you still want to look like them? Date them?

I hope not.

The truth about "the beautiful people" is that so many of them are messed up and abusing themselves, killing their bodies. They obsessively measure their food, they count the calories, the carbs, the fat. They panic if they eat something "bad" and then punish themselves at the gym for it. They are thinking about their looks, their weight, 24/7. If they're not at the gym they're planning when to go to the gym, what to eat, how many calories it will be and how much gym they need to do to make up for it. They obsess about a 1cm roll of "fat" (skin) on their waist. They cant go out for dinner with their friends or go away for the weekend because they will eat the wrong thing or cant get to the gym. They can never relax and enjoy life with some balance and flexibility.

Why? To look good? To be admired as one of "the beautiful people"? How sad.

I may not look like one of "the beautiful people" anymore, but I assure you, I have seen and done all of the above. Unless you're in it you never know its going on - people you would never expect are doing this. If I could tell you the examples you would be shocked. Believe me, I thought I was beautiful back then, but I was actually "beautiful". Now, I am healthier and more beautiful on the inside than I ever was when I was one of "the beautiful people".

I am beautiful and I am healthy. And I never want to be one of "the beautiful people" again. Ever.

Yay to the chick at the gym at 5am with that pillow crease-mark on her cheek, with panda eyes and bed hair. Yay to the guy training for a charity run. The couple hiking out in the fresh air. The big guy power walking on the footpath on his way to work. The Olympic swimmer dedicating her life to sport and representing her country. And yay to the teenager standing strong against peer pressure not to be in the "in crowd" and love her body and herself  by eating healthy, exercising for the enjoyment and having balance in her life.

Yay to you loving yourself right now, exactly as you are. xx