I’m grateful too, because that’s where you and I connected! ♥️ I’m enjoying following your journey and might have some thoughts to share down the line.
Such a great post and important conversation. As you know I'm not for fad diets and a hyper focus on weight loss. I find it can really backfire when people make the decision to change things up for the soul purpose of weight loss. Of course the desire to lose weight isn't wrong and many people can benefit from it but it's so important to go beyond the scale and vanity metrics when it comes to seeking changes in eating and lifestyle habits. People often do it out of self hatred and the need to measure up to a standard and not self love and that's where I believe things need to change. Nourishing and caring for your body is a self care and self love practice and that involves your eating habits, your lifestyle, your mindset and addressing all dimensions of wellness beyond the physical including healing your trauma. That's the issue I take with diet culture - the hyper focus on losing weight by eating less and exercising more and cutting all joy out of the eating experience. It's unsustainable and doesn't get to the root cause of the issue. Rant over. Great post. Really enjoyed reading.
This is so right on, Kerstin. I so often feel damned if I do and damned if I don't. I want to lose weight to feel better in my body--not to attain some false societal view of beauty. But in certain circles I can't even admit to that. I'm supposed to want my body to be how it is now forever. So I'm not supposed to want to lose weight or follow a diet but the other side of the story is that I'm supposed to be thin. Arrgggh. It's more complicated than ever these days--sort of a microcosm of our divided society at large!
I find this sooo interesting because as you say: both ends of this spectrum are just difficult to deal with and not necessarily right. I think with all of this it just comes down to finding and following your own path. And then being brave enough to walk on it. And if everyone could just look and observe to themselves „oh look there is X who walks their path, that’s good.” I dream of a world like that.
100% agree with everything you have said here. There is so much to navigate and every aspect (diet culture, emotional over-eating, trauma and health etc) plays a part; I think this is what makes it so difficult. It's so multi-faceted.
A good post. Neither extreme is good. I know I need to lose weight to be healthy. Almost 60 it is definitely past vanity. After an unsuccessful year, I decided to focus a bit more on what & how much I eat.
Agree with everything you’ve written especially “you can’t ‘body love’ your way out of obesity”. My challenge is to body love my body full stop! To befriend my body which I’ve spent a lifetime ignoring and then actively hating the larger it got. In all the self- work and personal development I’ve done I have ignored my body and I gave up in terms of my weight. Something has clicked in me that my
Body is my home, it’s the only one I have, and there’s nothing wrong in wanting to restyle it, to downsize!
Feeling confused?
I’m grateful too, because that’s where you and I connected! ♥️ I’m enjoying following your journey and might have some thoughts to share down the line.
Well, you know I love this. ;) xo
Such a great post and important conversation. As you know I'm not for fad diets and a hyper focus on weight loss. I find it can really backfire when people make the decision to change things up for the soul purpose of weight loss. Of course the desire to lose weight isn't wrong and many people can benefit from it but it's so important to go beyond the scale and vanity metrics when it comes to seeking changes in eating and lifestyle habits. People often do it out of self hatred and the need to measure up to a standard and not self love and that's where I believe things need to change. Nourishing and caring for your body is a self care and self love practice and that involves your eating habits, your lifestyle, your mindset and addressing all dimensions of wellness beyond the physical including healing your trauma. That's the issue I take with diet culture - the hyper focus on losing weight by eating less and exercising more and cutting all joy out of the eating experience. It's unsustainable and doesn't get to the root cause of the issue. Rant over. Great post. Really enjoyed reading.
This is so right on, Kerstin. I so often feel damned if I do and damned if I don't. I want to lose weight to feel better in my body--not to attain some false societal view of beauty. But in certain circles I can't even admit to that. I'm supposed to want my body to be how it is now forever. So I'm not supposed to want to lose weight or follow a diet but the other side of the story is that I'm supposed to be thin. Arrgggh. It's more complicated than ever these days--sort of a microcosm of our divided society at large!
I find this sooo interesting because as you say: both ends of this spectrum are just difficult to deal with and not necessarily right. I think with all of this it just comes down to finding and following your own path. And then being brave enough to walk on it. And if everyone could just look and observe to themselves „oh look there is X who walks their path, that’s good.” I dream of a world like that.
100% agree with everything you have said here. There is so much to navigate and every aspect (diet culture, emotional over-eating, trauma and health etc) plays a part; I think this is what makes it so difficult. It's so multi-faceted.
A good post. Neither extreme is good. I know I need to lose weight to be healthy. Almost 60 it is definitely past vanity. After an unsuccessful year, I decided to focus a bit more on what & how much I eat.
Agree with everything you’ve written especially “you can’t ‘body love’ your way out of obesity”. My challenge is to body love my body full stop! To befriend my body which I’ve spent a lifetime ignoring and then actively hating the larger it got. In all the self- work and personal development I’ve done I have ignored my body and I gave up in terms of my weight. Something has clicked in me that my
Body is my home, it’s the only one I have, and there’s nothing wrong in wanting to restyle it, to downsize!
Love this. Thank you.