Weight Loss And Self Respect
Ok! There is a lot to unpack here so this may be a chaotic blog post, but it’s going to be very impactful and useful. You might feel triggered by what I am about to say and what my opinion is on the idea of people thinking and saying that weight loss is the ultimate form of self respect and self love.
WEIGHT LOSS IS THE ULTIMATE FORM OF SELF RESPECT AND SELF LOVE
Is it though? Or is this kind of thinking actually toxic and harmful and manufactured to make people hate on people with bigger bodies and also make more money for the diet companies! (OOOH DID I JUST SAY THAT!)
Are people who have bigger bodies just not respecting themselves enough? Are they supposed to be a certain size (SMALL, THIN) in order to prove to the world that they are self respecting and self loving human beings?
NOPE!!! THAT IS A BIG, FAT NOPE!!
But, that doesn’t make the big, rich, diet companies any money!
Let’s Talk about SHAME baby!
Shame is a powerful thing! How many times have you heard people say if bigger bodied people just respected and loved themselves, then they would lose weight? They would diet and exercise and lose weight.
How shoved down your throat has that way of thinking been in your life? I know, for me, as a person who has lived in a bigger body than what society thinks I should be most of my life, I have heard that MANY times.
Especially when I’m losing weight or going to the gym. So many people will congratulate me on respecting and loving myself. As if I didn’t respect or love myself before. Let me just say this. Weight loss has nothing to do with self respect or self love. Self respect and self love are not size dependent.
DIET COMPANIES KNOW HOW POWERFUL SHAME IS
Shame keeps you thinking you aren’t good enough. That, if you only dieted and lost weight, you would love and respect yourself. It’s a vicious cycle that keeps you entrapped in the diet culture mentality world and guarantees more money being pumped into big diet corporations, who are just exploiting you to make that money.
I know! You probably have very big thoughts on what I just said. “But losing weight is important to peoples health”. Right? Not always. Let’s not forget that people come in all sizes and you can’t tell someones health by the size of their body.
ONE SIZE FITS ALL
The healthiest body is not a one size fits all kind of thing. Each persons healthiest body differs greatly, person to person. Also, no one owes the world healthy. Let’s just put that out there.
But, I got off topic there for a sec.
I’m a plus size woman on a fitness journey who has lost 60 pounds recently and I do not have more self respect and self love right now than I did when I was at my heaviest weight 2 years ago.
NOURISHING
Now, I know what you are thinking. Why do I think being healthy is so wrong? I don’t think being healthy is wrong. I think pushing the narrative that the only way for bigger bodied people to respect and love themselves is by them losing weight. Because that is complete BS!
It’s harmful to think of being healthy and nourishing your body as just a weight loss tactic. People of all sizes can benefit from eating healthy and getting exercise, not just to make your body smaller. Some people might also not want to make their body smaller also.
Let’s get more into the mentality of NOURISHING ourselves, body, mind and soul and not being so much in that diet culture mentality and weight loss obsession mentality.
That would be a very healthy way of thinking and also not push harmful and toxic ways of thinking and feeling onto others.
Did this blog post get you thinking or did you need to read this today?
Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment. I hope this gives you something to think about and helps you realize self respect and self love are not dependent on weight loss or the size of a persons body.