The pervasive societal standards of idealized puppy physical beauty can undermine your self-acceptance, self-esteem, and self-worth. Negative body image is a difficult feeling to overcome because it’s so obvious that thinner pups get more attention on Twitter, IG, and Grindr.

I’ve always felt that the way we feel about our own body image is massively influenced by our circle of friends and our family. As others make tiny comments about our weight we begin to stress more and more about it.

Consider that there are more than 1.47 Quintillion user accounts on Twitter and 7.75 Billion people on the planet, there are plenty of guys that would drool over your body right now, plenty that would have drooled over body before.

If found that the guys on hookup apps that lust after thinner guys are usually nasty with their criticism of anyone with a few extra pounds. They are not a friendly or supportive crowd that would never make it into my personal circle of friends.

If it’s the comments of your own circle of family/friends that made you feel disgusted by what you saw in the mirror, then I recommend slowly distancing yourself from those circles and replace them all.

My personal view on this topic is that we all need to unlearn the harsh societal standards of thin supermodel pups that are prevalent today. Those standards are based on popularity, not health.

The only reason to stress about our weight is if you are concerned about your health. So many of us are guilty of doing things that we know are bad for our health, but we still do it.

I know there’s a bit of irony in me saying all this considering that I’m 5’10” and weigh 147. I don’t work out nor count calories. I only hover around that weight because I have developed a lot of food allergies as I’ve gotten older. I’ve documented a lot of them in my medical records. When I became aware of more of my food allergies in 2014, I did loose a little weight, but since then I have maintained my weight simply being aware of those allergies and avoiding those foods.

Lastly, the mission I’ve set for HLP is for everyone to “be who they want to be.” Although the topic of losing weigh is common in the chat, i really hope that the catty grindr-esque comments about weight won’t happen between HLP members, and if it does, then everyone witnessing it is invited to tactfully intervene.