It is easy to get convinced by the weight loss industry that
you are overweight and should be partaking in the latest fad diet or weight
watcher program. I have fallen for this scan so many times. Apparently,
according to the Body Mass Index, I am overweight; I have been labeled as
overweight since high school. Because of this, I used to constantly worry about
the number on the scale and the size of my jeans. I exercised every day and constantly
watched everything I ate, often denying myself foods that I was craving. As a swimmer,
I exercise about 4 hours a day and often times during practice I used to catch
myself thinking that I should be swim faster and longer so I can burn more
calories. This was not a good mentality; I should have been focusing on my
desire to become a better athlete instead of becoming smaller.
Yet, after exercising and eating healthy, I still was
considered overweight. So I started the Beach Body 21 day Fitness program in
hopes of becoming skinny and finally categorized
as a normal weight. I followed all the work out programs and ate only the foods
that were approved by the company. After
a week or so on the program I noticed I was going to bed hungry, became moody,
and felt guilty every time I wanted to have bread. This is not okay – both for
my physical or mental health. I wanted to lose weight to feel better about
myself and have more confidence but the process was doing just the opposite. Yet,
I became obsessed with this industry because I was convinced it was going to
make me skinny. The company advertised so many before and after pictures so it
must be guaranteed to work, right?
Wrong. People forget that every human is genetically different
and not designed to have the same weight or appearance. This can be difficult
for individuals, especially women, to grasp when dealing with their
weight. Deb Burgard uses the metaphor that
humans are like different dog breeds and we can only determine our breed based
the natural weight we fall into if we live a good life. Therefore, since we do
not starve dogs to turn them into a different breed, we should not starve ourselves
to make an unnatural weight seem normal (Burgard, 44).
Nevertheless, powerful institutions, like the medical field,
have created this constant obsession over weight. For instance, Pinterest has
its own Health and Fitness tab that
offers pages on top of pages of tips for quick weight lost, body
transformation, and recipes for detoxing and metabolism boosters . Since this section is called Health
and fitness, it illustrates that
in order for an individual to be considered healthy; they must lost weight by
following certain dieting and exercise programs without taking in to consideration
individual differences, the physical and mental problems it causes, and the
journey to having a health lifestyle – it simply implies health as being skinny.
Health at Every Size argues that becoming healthy should be
a lifelong process that focuses on an individual’s emotional and physical
well-being, self-acceptance of one’s shape, size, and physical features, and the
enjoyment of exercising and eating health (Burgard, 42). Health at Every Size
does not focus on physical appearance or weight of all individuals but instead the
process of becoming healthy. Simply focusing on a lower BMI and the health label causes an emotional toll on
the individual, decreases self-acceptance of one’s own body due to constant comparisons,
and turns exercise into a chore or obligation. In ”What is ‘Health at Every Size?”, Deb Burgard
provides an example of a scenario where the medical field supports weight loss techniques
used by overweight individuals but they diagnose these same techniques as an
eating disorder in smaller individuals. How can this be acceptable? This leads
to individuals constantly worrying about food consumption patterns on a daily
basis, feeling guilty after over indulging in certain foods and then feel
obligated to exercise for many hours a day to burn off extreme amounts of
calories.
Instead of encouraging individuals to solely focusing on
weight lost as the ultimate goal to health, the medical field needs to
encourage individuals to learn to appreciate their body and create a health and
happiness mentality. Over the past few months I have started to shift my way of
thinking away from my constant fear of weight gain and physical appearance. Now
I focus on exercise as a stress relieve and eating healthy as enjoyable. I
would much rather go for a run or eat a salad than sit on the couch and eat ice
cream because I personally enjoy these activities way more. I do not deny
myself food when my stomach tells me I am hungry or when I am having the occasional
sweet tooth craving. This is the true definition of health living. I do not
find myself constantly stressing or feeling guilty about the various foods I
consumed or feel obligated to go to the gym. Living a healthy style has made me
healthier than any diet or exercise program I attempted in the past.
References
Burgard, Beb. (2009). What is “health at every size”?. In M.
Wann (Ed.), The fat studies reader. (pp.
42- 52). New York, NY: New York
University Press.
Do you think the medical world is ready/willing to accept this type of movement? HAES seems like a more holistic approach to health, which the medical world seems to be shifting towards but I can't see the movement being embraced by the medical world without lots of convincing.
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