I’m old and tired of being fat. I’m also tired of hearing about keto diets, low carbs, no carbs, carnivore, and even vegan diets even though the vegan diets aren’t necessarily associated with weight loss. There is a sickness in our society that puts looks above all else, even though when it comes to the body, it isn’t about looks. No, my friends, it’s about health. There seems to be an uprising of women who are against dieting, and they might even start to outweigh (pun intended) those who look more like the fake ideal we see in magazines. Good for you, it’s about time – ‘cus ladies, if the sight of a French fry scares you, you need to see a therapist. And if your “better half” is casting disparagement on the way you look, feel free to kick them to the curb. But the question still remains, if you can’t accept your body as it is, what is your health and wellness telling you?
Accept Your Body For Health Reasons
Here’s the rub, if you ask me: Your body is a temple, and it keeps you alive. If you feel comfortable in your mind to accept your body as it is, that is good for mental health. But at what size do you have to start considering your physical health? Remember it’s just as unhealthy to be underweight as it is to be overweight.
Accept Your Body Post Childbirth
For me, my weight issues weren’t too bad after I had kids. Yes, I gained weight, but it wasn’t embarrassing for me from an appearance standpoint. And because I was still young, I was able to lose the weight with some exercise and will power to avoid bad food. And my husband didn’t say a word about my weight gain. However, he did compliment me when I lost the poundage. So maybe deep down he wasn’t happy with my post-baby size. Who knows? I frankly didn’t care enough to ask. Because guess what, it’s not about him. It’s only about me — how I feel inside and out.
Don’t Accept Your Body Because He Does
So, when I read about women who say, “Wow my husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, lover (whoever!) loves me even more now that I’m fat!” I say, “Really?” Because to me you still decided to accept your body based on someone else’s standards. If you ditch that partner, what about the next one? What if they want you rail-thin, or to gain 100 pounds? It’s about you and no one else. But more so, it’s about your health.
Health Makes It Easier To Accept Your Body
My real weight gain started in my late 40s when I ran into thyroid issues. That’s when I felt like garbage, inside and out. And by the time my doc finally discovered the reason I could no longer lose weight and just kept gaining was due to a lump in my thyroid, I was fat city. I finally had surgery, got meds, and the right diet based on my metabolism and ditched that 60 pounds. I looked, but more importantly, felt, great.
So again, ladies ask yourself this: How do I feel? For me when I lost the weight, I had no more back pain, no more knee pain, and actually stopped getting horrible reflux. I could walk for miles, stand for longer, and saw my cholesterol and sugar levels plummet. In other words, I was healthy. So, here I sit post-holiday feeling fat again. Sadly for me, it will be back to a no-carb diet to lose that weight. But it’s not because I care about being rail-thin, or my husband thinks I’m fat. It is simply because I want to be the healthiest me possible.
Be Like Lindsay Wolf
Take Lindsay Wolf, for example. She admits to getting naked on Instagram…a lot. Her body does not match the unrealistic photoshopped images you’ll find on the cover of a magazine and she knows that her body is FABULOUS! After eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and struggling with self-hate to maintain an unhealthy rail-thin figure, she finally embraced her post-baby body that was 75 pounds heavier. She began to belive what her husband had been telling her all along – that he loves and accepts her exactly as she is and that he finds her more attractive now that when she was bone thin. So, remember it doesn’t matter what your body looks like. It matters how you feel and that you’re taking care of your overall health and wellness – however it looks.
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A post shared by Lindsay Wolf (@thelindsaywolf) on Jan 8, 2020 at 5:52am PST