Weight Loss and Body Acceptance

I am conducting research for an eBook I'm writing called 10 Ways to Lose 10 Pounds in 10 Days.

 The book presents the pros and cons of ten extreme ways to lose weight quickly.

As a health-advocate, I don't support extreme diets unless the dieter is very clear about the nature of the diet and has a clear idea about the purpose of consequences (such as quick weight regain) and unsustainability of such a diet. Further, I support permanent lifestyle change for health, and a "diet" is rarely conducive to that end.

The 10 Ways book has a bonus method, which I called Method 0. Method 0 is to love yourself as you are and forget dieting. We live in a thin-obsessed society, and while I am not fully convinced of some of the claims of the fat acceptance movement, such as HAES (Health At Every Size), I do strongly agree that accepting yourself as you are and loving yourself as you are is fundamental to health. A person can't hate their body into a shape that they will love. Our bodies love us, try to keep us alive and protect us, and we need to love our bodies back if we are to enjoy emotional and physical health.

I have two female friends who are very good looking and physically attractive. Both are below-average in weight, are mothers of multiple children, and have told me that they are - to put it mildly - unhappy with their "fat."

If not for the social construct of "you can never be too thin or too beautiful," would either of these women or countless others like them have any issues with their size and appearance? No. The reason they think they are too fat is for one reason only: social and media pressure. Both are healthy, reasonably active, and able to enjoy physical activities and tasks. If not for social pressure, there would be absolutely no reason for these women to ever give "a few extra pounds" a second thought.

So if these popular women have difficulties with body image, how much more so for people who are considered less attractive by current standards and are less socially accepted because of being "too fat?"

What I have learned and am learning has really given me pause and caused me to carefully consider how I want to write and market a book on extreme diets in a society that obsessed thin to the point that thin = happy, thin = good and the converse judgments.

While we cannot simply throw off media programming any more than we can throw off sexism, racism, or ageism, we can begin to see the ideal of physical perfection for what it really is: a way for corporations to profit from our insecurity. The way to combat this attack on our persons is through education. Learn the real issues and learn the difference between a media manipulation and real human values.

So while I'm an advocate of self-improvement and living healthy, active life, we all need to remember that a person's worth cannot be measured with a tape or a scale.