Health at Every Size: Wellness for Every Body

Ah, the new year. One of the most predictable trends for the beginning of the year is that diet advertisements, fitness programs, and weight-loss medication scams will be everywhere on television, radio, and print media.

And one of the most predictable trends for the fitness program ads is that they will show rooms full of thin, young, fully able people enjoying a workout in perfect harmony. This, of course, is not what actual gyms are like. It is my hope that this is not what we *want* our gyms to be like. Now would be a great time to make our gyms more friendly to every body--and that includes a special invitation to the plus-sized consumer.

There is a wellness philosophy called "Health at Every Size", six of whose basic tenets are as follows:

1. Good health is a state of physical, mental and social well-being.
2. Human beings come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
3. There is no ideal body size, shape, BMI or body composition.
4. Self-esteem and body image are strongly linked.
5. Each person is responsible for taking care of his/her own body.
6. Appearance stereotyping is wrong.

Despite the longtime prevalence of polls and other statistical information suggesting that five pounds over one's desired weight means that you have suddenly entered heart attack country--a new truth is emerging.

The idea of living in a healthy body has more to do with the way we treat the body that we live in, than the size of that body. If we eat well and find joy in movement and in leading a balanced lifestyle, that is one of the best ways that we can live.

Notice that I started that last sentence with the phrase "If we eat well and find joy in movement...". I am by no means giving anyone permission to spend their days wrapped around a palette of Frito-Lay products, and washing those things down with fizzy brown glop. Our bodies were made to be in motion, and, efficient machines that they are, if they find that we are not utilizing our resources, our bodies find ways to consolidate. My experience, as a therapist who helps people to live well in their bodies, has been that it's best to avoid that.

Simple sugars--sodas, chips, candy bars--have immediate access to our bloodstream once consumed. That means that it takes very little time between the time we choose a Reese's and the time we feel the effect...and the time we feel the crash. Complex sugars--fruits,vegetables, agave syrup, etc.--go through our body's digestive process. The body processes these foods at a slow and steady pace, giving us constant access to the stability that our systems can experience when we break them down. There's no crash for most of us after we eat an apple--but then, there is no high, either.

The truth is that we live in a culture that can't seem to make up its mind. It's not just that food commercials are everywhere; no, that's not the issue at all. The problem is that we are urged to keep consuming, as though each of us is a bottomless pit of want. Food is not the only culprit; other items are sold in this matter. But when we consume food in the way that the media urges us to do, it has an effect on our bodies. That effect varies, depending on a number of things, including what was happening with our metabolisms at the beginning of the roller coaster ride.

Clearly, I am no nutritionist. I say this to point out a few things:

1. Food choices impact the size of our bodies.
2. Food choices impact the shape of our bodies.
3. Food choices impact the stability of our moods.
4. The ways in which we metabolize foods are individualized. (Example: I have a thin sister. If she eats a candy bar, she just recycles the wrapper and moves on. If I eat a candy bar, I gain a pound.)

And of course, we can find our joy somewhere else. All that the dancing sodas and the coy chocolate commercials can do is entertain us...they don't have to entice us. Despite what those commercials suggest, a burger, a beer, and a fist full of candies are not an instant pathway to nirvana. We can find other ways to joy.

Everyone can find a way. Body size and shape need not stand between where we are and where we would like to be. We start where we are. That's the gift of it.

The Health at Every Size movement gives everyone permission to feel good about who they are, where they are, and to treat our bodies well. This is not a trick or a means of coercion, like the diets of yesteryear, which extolled the virtues of "love yourself--now lose that lard!" It's a simple platform about loving ourselves more right now, today, just where we are...which is always an investment that yields a fine return.

On the Health at Every Size page, you will find some information about the movement itself, some Internet resources, and some contact data, in case you would like to talk with a HAES professional. Go look. It's worth your time.