Everyone’s body is different. We could be short and skinny, short and fat, tall and skinny, or even tall and fat. I consider myself short and skinny. I have been going to the gym recently to improve my body so I can be in good shape and to also improve my health. I always get called skinny because I was not eating and underweight, but no matter how much I ate, my weight never increased. I guess you could say my stomach is a black hole. You could be born with good genes or bad genes where you could have a fast metabolism and eat more again, or end up with a slow metabolism where you are still full after a few hours and not be able to eat.

My eating habits have been bad, so I took it upon myself to try and eat more protein in order to bulk and be able to physically improve my body. I took a shortcut and started to use protein powder to get my daily protein in. So far I have been to the gym since march 2022 and my body has been getting more lean which has improved my weight along with the amount of exercise I am doing. I did not start to go to the gym due to body shame, but rather to improve myself and become a better man. It was interesting to see this quote in the article of “Made by the Work”, by Ed Slavishak when he said, “From long-haul truckers with chronic back pain and hemorrhoids to data-entry clerks with carpal tunnel syndrome, laboring bodies experience ailments and annoyances that are often hidden because they are experienced in isolation” (148). People may not realize that physical labor can either improve your body or damage it. I have seen people body shame because of how they looked such as a man having a curled body which made them look like a “troll”, but in reality, they had back problems due to work. Next time you see someone that has a “lesser” body than you, stop and think before you say something as they know what you do not.