Educate yourself about weight & bodies
What do you believe about weight & bodies?
Today I’m talking about something that will challenge everything you’ve ever been led to believe about weight and bodies.
Beliefs like:
♥ Your weight is 100% within your control;
♥ Being overweight is down to lack of will power;
♥ Weight is a simple equation: calories in minus calories out.
If you believe any or all of these things, it’s not suprising in our culture.
Diet culture brainwashes us to believe these kinds of things.
Diet culture has become so ingrained in society, that many people never stop to question or challenge what it tells us (and that was me too for the longest time!).
But have you ever wondered if maybe what we’ve been taught isn’t totally accurate? Maybe it’s biased or misleading?
In this post, I’m asking you to open your mind and to seek out alternative sources of information.
Challenging popular beliefs to understand what’s really going on in the body will help you to feel differently about your own.
Watch or read below:
Beware your information sources
One of the biggest reasons women don’t like their bodies is because of their weight. We live in a society that has convinced us we have perfect control over our body.
Because of this, women constantly feel bad about their bodies if they aren’t what they perceive to be the cultural ‘ideal’.
But most of what we know about our ability to achieve weight loss comes from biased sources intent on making money.
Leading women to believe that they can control their body if they only follow this or that diet programme makes the diet industry a lot of money.
Even the supposed research looking into the negative impacts of obesity is often funded by the diet industry, which is hardly an unbiased source.
Seek out alternative information
Educate yourself about weight and bodies, looking at unbiased sources that are grounded in evidenced based research, and you’ll be equipped with all the facts.
For example, your weight isn’t as much within your control as youu think (in fact, around 70% of your weight is determined by genetics).
And when you do try to gain control with restrictive diets and punishing exercise, you’re actually fighting against your body.
So I encourage you to seek out factual, evidence based sources on weight and bodies.
Understanding what’s really going on with your weight will help you to stop being so harsh on yourself.
The one book that has really changed my views on weight and bodies is, “Health at Every Size – The surprising truth about your weight” by Dr Linda Bacon.
Dr Bacon’s work is based on years of evidence based research. And, from what I can see, Dr Bacon has no agenda other than discovering the truth.
Re-educating yourself isn’t easy (but it’s worth it!)
But a word of warning – once you start to look at views that dispute those in the popular media, you’re likely going to struggle at first, because it goes against everything you’ve ever known and believed.
But try to stick with it – remain open minded in your research.
When you challenge the popular view, you will start to see your body in a different light. You’ll be in awe at how it works to regulate your weight.
So keep doing your research, draw your own conclusions and notice the difference in how you feel about your body.
I’d love to hear what research you’ve done and how it made you feel about your body. Please leave a comment below.
Great advice Judi. People should not be looking at weight but focus on their health. It is far more important to be healthy, have plenty of energy and to feel good in yourself. Weight after all is just a measurement. As long as you are giving your body the right fuel it will work the best; Education about which foods are healthy and which ones are not is so important. So your advice of doing your own research and not to listen to the media and the diet industry is absolutely right. Thank you.