“It’s okay to be fat. So you’re fat. Just be fat and shut up about it.” – Roseanne
“Never eat more than you can lift.” – Miss Piggy
“Attention to health is life’s greatest hindrance.” – Plato
“Your body is the battlefield upon which you wage war against yourself.” – Deepak Chopra
As you’re WELL aware, our society is obsessed with weight. If you opened your eyes at all today, you’ve seen at least a dozen messages about weight loss products and celebrities who are either too skinny or who have packed on a few pounds. Liposuction, hyper-obesity, bulimia, competitive eating…we are so screwed up. According to Susan Jane Gilman in her awesome book, Kiss My Tiara, “Approximately 70% of the female population is on a diet at any given time. More women diet than vote.” That is insanity!
As someone who has struggled with weight my entire adult life, I have weight loss fatigue. I’m sick to death of worrying about what I can’t eat. If I never hear the word “carb” again, it will be too soon. Remember when they thought that in the future, we would just have a pill to provide all of our nutrients rather than food? I am so ready for that pill. Then I could get a divorce from food and wash my hands of the entire subject.
When I look in the mirror, I don’t love what I see. But I accept that this body has gotten me through a lot, including bringing two people into the world. This body isn’t a piece of fine art. I have a functional, working body. And that’s just what it looks like.
Ultimately, your body is your body whether you love it hate it, so what’s the point of spending your entire life hating it? Especially when there are roughly four million jillion things in the world more important that the size of our thighs.
Just imagine for a moment if the people of the world took all of the time and energy and money that we spend on trying to reshape our bodies and diverted it to something more worthwhile. We could end poverty! Or cancer! Or hunger! (the non-self induced kind.)
We are better than this. We are smarter than this. So here’s what I propose. We have to give ourselves and each other a break. We should all eat a realistically healthy diet. We should all move our bodies and break a sweat once in a while so that we feel vibrant. And then we should all get over it and make something great out of our lives. Fat asses be damned! (Addendum to this proposal: Anyone who critiques someone else’s body, especially for a living, is a shallow shitbird who should re-examine their life choices pronto.)
Please join me in raising a fork to kindness – to ourselves and to others. And to looking a little farther out into the world than the tag in our jeans.
Some excellent articles on this topic:
Body Image – Knot Magazine
This Year, Let’s Call It Quits on the Nasty Nit-Picking – Jezebel
End the Fat Talk: Friends Don’t Let Friends Talk Fat – Care2
How to Love Your Gorgeous Goddessy Belly (or any other body part) – Mooky Chick
Body Image Concerns Hardwired into Women’s Brains – Discovery News
All Women Worry About Getting Fat, Study Suggests – LiveScience
If you like those, you’ll dig these sites too:
The Shape of a Mother
Any Body
