And You Know What

Dear Ones,

What follows is a bit of a rant, that started because of a few posts that I have seen lately from people who want to tell fat people that it isn't healthy to be fat.

Weight in and of itself is not the problem. The food supply, toxins, diets and other things are far more dangerous. There is such thing as Health At Every Size and a book by the same name By Linda Bacon PhD.

It is really easy to talk about healthy options, however we MUST stop with the judgement and the criticism and the assumptions about people who are larger than others. These posts make the assumption that simply being thin makes a person better. Is that true?

I have lived in a body that happens to be genetically predisposed to carry weight.  This has allowed me the opportunity to deeply experience the way the world treats people of size.  Because EVERYONE believed it was so BAD when I was a child, I was put on diets by 7 and was doing horrible fasting and starvation programs by high school.  My self-image was severely damaged by the large number of people who felt it was ok to judge me, tease me in the halls at school, tell me what I was doing wrong, and the perpetual.... if only you lost weight...

Guess what? I wasn't even "obese" back then. The dieting did that for me.

These days, I am working to make it safe in my skin for me to live happily, every day, every minute.  That's not actually too easy given the negativity that I have absorbed over all these years on this subject.

What I am also finding I must do it speak about this and ask people to think about it.  Im asking you to think a bit for yourself, instead of simply following what the experts, media and "doctors" have to say.

As we as a nation have gotten larger, we have become harder and harder on those who are large.  The State of Georgia thought it was ok to put up billboards that essentially mock and shame children of size.  That is child abuse in my opinion. That gives public permission to treat these children poorly.

I remember a Facebook post recently where someone was just throwing around the word fat, it was being used as a major insult, to demean.  It is a noun, it is an adjective, and it is painful, and often senselessly used.

There are dozens of reasons why we are becoming larger. And there are literally thousands of people who think they know more than the fat people about how they can be better and make their lives better. Because they are better, apparently.


AND YOU KNOW WHAT?

• We simply must find it in our hearts and souls to be gentle and good to ourselves and each other.

• It is time to look in the mirror and say I LOVE YOU to our bodies, no matter what perceived flaws are seen.

• This isn't about weight loss.  I can't be.  This is about caring for the bodies we are in, right now, not in some fantasy future. Thin isn't a synonym for healthy and fat isn't another word for sick.

• It is time to remember that we cannot judge someone by their outsides. Unless you are living in their skin, you don't get to say/think/"nicely suggest" a thing.

• We must start learning to listen to our bodies and teach our children that their bodies hold the wisdom of the universe.  We need to trust our bodies, they actually will let us know when we are hungry and what we want to eat.  However, we teach our children from when they are tiny not to trust their bodies or that they are wrong. So by the time we are adults, we have cut off the connection so far that having a "Gut Reaction" is a rarity.

• Let me tell you, I live in my gut and my belly as much as I can these days.  It serves me with a vast store of knowings.

• Can you imagine a world where it is really safe to be who you are in your body at whatever size it is? That could incite self-love and acceptance.  

You know what self-love and acceptance could incite?

Health.

At every size.

I love you all - thank you for sticking with me and reading to the end.

You are beautiful and handsome and your body is amazing - what a gift it is to get one and take this journey as a human at this time.

Blessed be.
~Amelia

and if what I am saying makes your skin crawl, thank you for getting to the end. Please read the book, I'll even loan you a copy if need be.