I’ve been trying to find a good place to put this and I think the first page that got me into Shapely Prose is apt. For 20 years now, I’ve had body image challenges. That’s right, I’m almost positive I could feel my ‘rolls’ as a baby. This summer, I am determined to Love Myself Silly.

After reading the comments on the book Lessons from the Fat-O-Sphere, I had to write this blog. I hope you get a chance to read it. It’s my little part in trying to improve Body Image worldwide.

http://love-yourself-silly.blogspot.com/2010/06/fat-is-fit-with-and-attitude-madtv.html

<3
Holland

I work in maternal health, so I hear this garbage spewed day in and day out, literally from day one– newborn babies judged on their size, and their moms along with them. Baby over 8 lbs? Mom must be an uncontrolled diabetic couch potato. UGH. Makes me sick.

Oh, and for the record, I’m fat. My husband is really fat. My daughter is getting up there. And we are happy with our HAES approach to life. :)

You rock. Keep it up.

Just saying I know exactly what you’re talking about, I’m a Dietitian and I’m not a skinny girl. lol. I know where you are coming from, about how its not about weight, its about being healthy, and your weight has very little to do with being healthy. My clients love me too, since I’m clearly not one of those nutritionists who think all fat people are evil, and must be trained to be skinny. haha…

The only negative thing is I noticed a lot of people ragging on BMI. BMI is and never should be used to actually determine someone’s health. It’s a generalization, and doesn’t take into fact a TON of things (like history or if you have muscle!). Dietitians know this, and *should* act accordingly. Fat is not bad. In fact, fat is good. It is a proven fact that all fat (except that around the belly) is GOOD. lol. Belly fat is okay, to an extent, but when there is too much, it can damage organs, basically by taking up too much space.

Thanks for being a voice of reason among so much confusion!

I am sad when I hear over and over commenters saying “I don’t know how I could possibly ever love myself, but thanks for trying…” Of course, that was (and sometimes still is) me. I see images of attractive women every single day. We all do. We are continually brainwashed by them, to the extent that no matter what a woman is doing, we will almost always define her by the way she looks (case in point: Kathleen Hanna, the ultra-outspoken punk songwriter from Bikini Kill…I always see her half-naked and think “damn, I wish I looked as good in that bikini…”)

Then one day, I saw the light. It was a revelation from who knows where, though perhaps enough of the reading and thinking I’d done about it finally clicked. I think that’s what needs to happen for all of us. We need to keep giving ourself the positive message until finally we snap, we break, we open the curtains and say FU** THIS BULLS***, life is already too short to waste hating myself, and to waste on caring how I look. You can spend your days punishing yourself and avoiding food, and still get into a fatal car wreck, and what would your life have amounted to? Nowadays, I eat with gusto and enjoyment, and get on with my life.

Trust me. I’m sure a bunch of regular commenters on this site can give you stories that prove the opposite.

If you’ve read more on this site than this post, you’ll already know that body acceptance is required here, so we do not body shame anyone, for any reason, under any circumstances, because you’re 100% right – it’s wrong to judge peoples’ bodies, regardless of weight. This particular blog and community focuses on fat people and our difficulties but we’re well aware of the flip side and that you can’t separate the two.

I hope you read more of the posts here. May you find it as helpful as I have.

DRST

I have since learned to just accept my boy frame and move on. But I do feel like I am judged just as much as an overweight person for being underweight. I HATE it when people ask me how much I weigh because they would NEVER ask someone obviously obese how much they weigh. So why is it acceptable to ask me? Or when people make assumptions that I have an eating disorder…just as they would assume an overweight person is lazy. I just wish people would stop focusing so much on other people and just focus on leading our OWN healthy lives. If everyone just stopped worrying so much about everyone else I think we would all be a lot better off!