Very good post. Made me realize I was totally wrong about this issue. I figure that one learns something new everyday. Mrs Right learned her lesson! Nice, informative website by the way. I’m linking because I think my readers will enjoy it as much as …

Very good post. Made me realize I was totally wrong about this issue. I figure that one learns something new everyday. Mrs Right learned her lesson! Nice, informative website by the way. I’m linking because I think my readers will enjoy it as much as …

But it only makes me love you more that you are able to accept things about yourself and just get over it. Dude, I so want to be you when I grow up.

I’m not heavy (my BMI is in the healthy zone already) but I am heavier than I used to be. And heavier than I am comfortable with. I guess I was X weight for so many years that when I am consistently above that weight, I just don’t feel good about myself.

I won’t delude myself that I am losing weight to be healthier — it is pure vanity. I want to get back into those small-sized clothes in my closet. Actually, I hear myself giving me the “well, it’s just important that you’re healthy” talk as an avoidance tactic for losing weight when I don’t really mean it.

Anyway, I don’t think that means I have an unhealthy mindset. I generally like myself — I just like myself more a bit thinner. Nothing wrong with that, I think.

There are so many things wrapped into food and body issues — one, healthy and thin are NOT the same thing. Two, “plus size” seems to equal 10-12, which marginalizes a whole lot of women. Three, being thin and eating small amounts somehow gets portrayed as virtuous, and being anything other than thin seems to indicate gluttony and lack of restraint, so morality gets wrapped up into body image, which is BUNK…four, I think Americans have a really effed up relationship with food as a whole, and can’t just treat it like FOOD – to be eaten and enjoyed – and instead are constantly counting and measuring and looking for Free Passes in the eating and dieting game (and viewing exercise as a means to an end – thinness – instead of an activity that can and should be enjoyed for more reasons than the number of calories burned)…and finally, the one that pisses me off the most, is the way in which women turn against each other and attack one another based on lifestyles or decisions different from their own…in the same way that I see breast-feeding and the decision whether or not to stay home with kids turn women against each other, food/body image/dieting/the desire to lose weight does the same thing. The fact is, losing a few pounds has NOTHING to do with selling out the sisterhood. I’m not going to hold onto 10 extra pounds to make a political statement; I’m going to do what feels right for me.

[Ahem, end body image manifesto...]

I’m giving the keynote address at a behavioral sciences conference in Alaska this weekend, and my topic is eating disorders. As usual, I’ll feel conspicuous about what I’m eating because I know I’ll be judged, and there’s a very thin line I can walk without people thinking I’m messed up in SOME way. What I try to remember is what I told a parent once who asked me how she should talk to her daughter about the fact that she’s dieting, per doctor’s orders. I told her to make sure her daughter knew it was on doctor’s orders: “The doctor said I need to lose weight to be as healthy as possible, whereas you, since you’re growing, need to keep gaining weight to be as healthy as possible.” Next time you encounter someone who judges your weight-loss efforts, just tell them it’s all on doctor’s orders. I’ve found it’s the most effective way to de-politicize the whole thing. But yeah, I know how exhausting it is…