I put this list of links together for a facebook group I'm part of around health, diet and exercise as I think that mental health and accepting yourself are key to health in general and I feel quite lucky in that I've always been fat and never had incredibly negative feelings about that but I know others have different experiences. I'm not an expert in this at all but I have done a bit of reading and I found a lot of the ideas very very helpful to my self esteem and my attitude to weight and health. Obviously I don't follow this way of thinking entirely as I am actively trying to lose weight but I do try and keep the key things I've learnt at the front of my mind. For me they are:
- I am a valid human being worthy of respect regardless of my size
- There are far far more important things for me to spend my energy on that worrying about fitting an unobtainable idea.
- Fat itself isn't a bad word- it's a description of my body- it doesn't mean I'm lazy, disgusting, or any of the other negative things that can be associated with it. It's just a word and a description and that's fine
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jan/30/fat-fashion-blogs
Some of the blogs are brilliant (http://www.gabifresh.com/)
And I really think it's worth spending some time looking through the flickr gallery
http://www.flickr.com/groups/fatshionista/pool/
Because normally when we see people of fat people they are often headless pictures of people illustrating the obesity epidemic. We aren't used to seeing fat people as people with lives and personalities and all the other good stuff. It's terrifying how normally the only images we see are very thin photoshopped people and it's good to remember that actually there are lots of people who don't look like that, are looking awesome and living their lives.
I read more about fat acceptance and like the political aspect of it as well.
These blogs are a good place to start
http://www.therotund.com/?page_id=190
http://kateharding.net/faq/but-dont-you-realize-fat-is-unhealthy/
This article about CV fitness being a better indicator of health than obesity is also good
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120904193052.htm
I don't follow all of it but I think treating everyone with respect and dignity and valuing people regardless of physical appearance (including yourself) is really important.
Some other great articles about this
http://blog.twowholecakes.com/2011/10/round-the-mulberry-bush-kids-food-and-the-hierarchy-of-needs/
http://www.xojane.com/healthy/time-i-got-naked-cancer
And Marianne and Lesley are generally awesome and I love their writing
http://www.xojane.com/author/Marianne
http://www.xojane.com/author/lesley
And basically anything on XO Jane tagged as fat will be worth your time
http://www.xojane.com/list/fat
Especially this about the scales
http://www.xojane.com/issues/
Re-reading these links did make me wonder about my approach to weight loss and health and the amount of time I've spent these last six months thinking about food and exercise. On one level I feel very selfish and worry I'm becoming one of those people who are dull and obsessive about something that really isn't that important. On the other hand I enjoy exercising. It's good to practise some will power and restraint and the TDEE diet I've found has been really good for me and I haven't felt deprived or hungry and I don't think eating less than I was before but still plenty to keep me going is necessarily a bad thing. Plus being able to buy clothes more easily is nice. I do need to start focussing more on other things too though. Looking back at my new years resolutions political involvement is still alluding me and I know I still spend far too much time on the internet instead of doing things and making things. I still feel like I want a project but I'm not sure what. But reading these inspirational articles is a step in the right direction.
