O2 MAX Fitness, youth fitness & media company, interviewed me as part of their series celebrating Fat Free Talk Week. Some of the tips I mentioned in my chat:
- Use fitness rather than “skinniness” as a measure of health
- Avoid blacklists and unreasonable restrictions (Atkins dieters, I’m talking to you)
- Listen to doctors, not magazines or fad diets
- Don’t feel guilty for indulgences
In other words, chill out. Our bodies are made differently and for a lot of girls, skinny does not equal healthy! And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s easy to delude yourself into thinking, “If only I lost five pounds, I would be happy.” But if you’re constantly beating yourself up over your body, then the problem is much bigger than a mere five pounds. Diets — even the supposedly successful ones — don’t make people into happy individuals if they don’t start them for the right reasons. (And no, fitting into a sexy Halloween costume is not the right reason.)
Take a step back and appreciate what you have, rather than bemoaning what you don’t. And that doesn’t just mean valuing your physical assets, but also your mental and emotional ones. There’s a lot more to girls than just their looks!
I’m not an expert on nutrition by any means, but I do know a good deal about body image and how the idealization of thinness affect women’s self-esteem and encourage unhealthy or even disordered eating. Ideas about beauty affect all people (think of the buffed-up masculinity ideal), and fat talk is just one manifestation of the impact on women.
It’s time to cut this crap out, doncha think?
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lenachenblogger reblogged this from lenachen
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pastthestorm reblogged this from lenachen and added:
always great advice. Often doctors can...just as fatphobic as
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