EDITOR'S LETTER

To the girls who don’t know where to start and are tired of all the noise xx By Shanti Parmanand

My journey with wellness started in 2010, at home on the sofa watching The Victoria’s Secret Show. I saw the cover girls Candice Swanepoel, Alessandra Ambrosio and Miranda Kerr strut down the runway in their deeply cinched hourglass figures as I wondered if they’d ever air a petite version of the show. 

My evening was consumed by Adrianna Lima’s pearly-white smile, intimidating beady eyes and iconic flying-kiss walk that made her look like the next president. The end was my favourite when she posed for the most passionate twirl, encouraging me to do the same, just in front of my flatscreen. Will my waist be that small and chiselled at twenty-five? It was almost as if she had answered my question through the camera when she blurted out “I don’t drink or eat anything on the day of the show, not even water!” 

The toxic side of wellness is well-versed; it has trends passed down by influencers on TikTok and has perfectly healthy young women questioning their proportionate bodies. We’re wired to think that we need to take at least six different vitamins a day to function and we allegedly must have all things green otherwise our diet isn’t superior. Comparison culture is the nest that nurtures wellness, innately inspiring the rapid pace that trends and products come out in. We feed off each other’s word of mouth, battling for the sacred title of being ‘that girl’ everyone speaks about at brunch over jealousy. 

‘Wellness’ didn’t always exist until Halbert Dunn, an American Physician fused together wellbeing and fitness, birthing the phenomenon in 1950. It was first looked at as a health condition until another American physician, Kenneth H Cooper jolted its meaning as being a proactive lifestyle. There were three conditions that had to be followed otherwise it wouldn’t constitute wellness. The first principle governed the motto of ‘not too much, not too little’ followed by the basic advice to exercise a minimum of 30 minutes a day, thrice a week. In combination with a balanced nutritional plan, a state of wellness was supposedly achieved. 

Back then, laxative-laced gum caught the hearts of young women and similarly today, chewing gum has been dubbed as an appetite suppressant hack. Influencers on TikTok light-heartedly applaud the potential works of the Type 2 Diabetic Drug, ‘Tirzepatide’ for weight loss, which isn’t any different from 60s housewives leisurely injecting the HCG hormone into their arms to shed fat. By the 90s, fenfluramine became as vital as oxygen where now, even former Victoria’s Secret Angel, Erin Heatherton admits previously taking them out of pressure. Now, as I’m part of the fitness industry and have faced my own societal pressures, the one ideal I will always preach is this: wellness is a lifestyle – point blank, full stop. Wellness shouldn’t include belittlement, ego or methods that aren’t accessible to all. It’s about creating a sense of security – all to the point where you solely feel your mental stability and physical health have been improving. 

While we love listicles on K-beauty products to buy and all the overpriced matcha powders to keep on our radar, there’s always a need for a reality check on the topics we’re too afraid to discuss. Wellness is more than what the internet demonstrates and to everybody scrolling through this platform, your version of it matters the most.