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What Can Body Acceptance Get You? PLENTY!, Gainesville, FL What Can Body Acceptance Get You? PLENTY!
IF BEING TOLD TO lose weight actually helped people to lose weight, there would be no fat people. If being told they “will die if they do not lose weight” by a medical doctor or that they “are unsightly” (as Ann Landers has done) helped people get thin, everyone would be thin.
Few people would elect to be fat in a culture that so flagrantly hates fat people. This cultural hatred of body fat keeps us constantly judging everyone we see. It also keeps us constantly checking the mirror and wondering what everyone else is thinking about us! Even thin people!
Fat hatred keeps people obsessed about food, and sometimes even afraid of food. Fat hatred keeps people counting calories or carbs, skipping dessert and trying to burn off calories. But it does not necessarily motivate them to adopt a healthier lifestyle— a lifestyle that could help them reach and maintain their natural, healthy weight.
Body hatred creates fear, anxiety, and chronic body dissatisfaction. It keeps people monitoring their bodies and continually trying to change them. If monitoring the body like this made us thin, we would all be thin! This focus does nothing to help people feel good about themselves. It does nothing to motivate them to take care of themselves.
Consider how you take care of something you really love. Think of your child, whom you nurture and watch over in a caring way. Or a pet, whom you feed well and take out for a walk. Or a favorite object, say a car, which you provide with regular upkeep so that it runs well and has a beautiful shine.
Why do people believe they have to hate themselves to get thin and to be healthy? I have yet to see this work. Since body hatred doesn’t work, why not try the opposite? Try liking yourself. If that is too radical a concept, start out with simply accepting yourself as you are.
Admittedly, accepting yourself if you are a woman is a radical concept in this culture. Sadly. But people who accept their bodies (or even like them!) take better care of themselves. Liking the self means taking better care of the self, which means more health enhancing behaviors— one of the best paths to reaching and maintaining a healthy, natural weight!
So, be radical! Decide to accept your body and yourself! Or, if that is too much for you right now, try treating yourself as if you did! G
About the Author: Karin Kratina, PhD, RD helps people recover from “diet trauma” and learn to manage their weight naturally. She is co-author of It’s the Calories, Not the Carbs, Eating Well, Living Well and Moving Away From Diets. She can be reached at 371-8181 or www.nourishingconnections.com.
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