Loving Who You Are at Any Size: What Does That Mean?

Image: Adipositivity.com

[This is a Wellness Wednesday contribution with Fitness & Nutrition Life Coach Flossie Alexander of You Can NOW! Coaching.]

When I got up this morning and signed into Facebook, I saw that I had been invited to a “Size is Sexy Party.”  I saw another one come out a couple of days ago for a different size acceptance party that had music set to it that wasn’t so flattering, at least to me.  The music on the video this morning was awesome and very flattering.  With the body acceptance movement in full force, I asked myself “what does body acceptance mean to me?”

Having been an overweight girl most of my life, I always thought I was that way because my grandmother always told me I was “big boned.”  I thought that was the reason why I was overweight.   Even until up to 5 or 6 years ago I accepted that was why I looked the way I did, even though all the signs were there I was ignoring the truth.  Having grown up in a very poor family, the way we looked, felt, the way we treated our bodies was far from what we were concerned about.  We were more worried about where our food was coming from every day and not about how much cardio we put in or weights we lifted.  I actually thought gyms were just for rich people.   I took that attitude into my adult years because I was conditioned to think that way.

I was on a conference call a while back for a book that is coming out for “Big Boned Women” and a lady made the comment, “before I was a big boned woman,” and it stopped me for a moment.  What does that mean to her?  What is being big boned? What does body acceptance really mean?  Why are we the way we are? Are we making the choices because of survival, because we don’t know any better or do we take that road because it is easy and that choice is readily available to us?  For me, all of these questions apply to me and I think of them every day.

After my doctor told me at the age of 33 that my blood work showed that I was pre-diabetic, I would have double knee replacements before the age of 40, my cardiac enzymes were elevated and at risk for a heart attack,  I realized I could no longer ignore the truth.  I had to start making choices to do what is right for me no matter how hard it was if I didn’t want to fall apart before I was 40.   More importantly, if I didn’t do something now, where would I be at 60?!

Over the last few years I have been researching the meaning of “body acceptance” and searching for that confidence I was meant to have.  Not through books or TV talk shows but through real people.  What I do know is, to me, body acceptance is learning to love me for who I am yesterday, today, and tomorrow and treating myself the best way I know how with the knowledge I have at the moment that is forever changing.  For me, body acceptance is coming out of the survival mode, slowing life down, and doing what I didn’t know to do in my younger years and that is taking care of me and my health from knowing good nutrition to hitting the stairs at the college because I need to get my “cardio” in for the day!  Body acceptance is doing what is right for my body and not taking the easy way out because that choice is there.  It means that after doing all the right things I can acknowledge that I will never be smaller than a size 12 because being petite was never meant for me.  It is knowing that I have a bigger rear than the girl next to me because that is how my body was meant to be.  Body acceptance is loving myself for who I am with the knowledge I have and doing all the right things for me physically, mentally, and spiritually.  What does it mean to you?

Be Healthy Every Day, You Are Worth It.

Flossie Alexander
Fitness & Nutrition Life Coach
You Can NOW! Coaching
Where Results ARE Typical!

About Flossie: Flossie is currently a member of the National Association of Professional Women and Toastmaster’s International. She is a Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Coach as well as a Certified Wellness Coach with a successful track record in leading organizations and individuals into achieving healthy lifestyle goals. After overcoming obesity, losing 165 pounds in 18 months, she has developed a passion to help others through public speaking and one-on-one weight loss coaching. Visit Flossie at http://www.youcannowcoaching.com to start creating your new healthy lifestyle and lose unhealthy weight permanently.

Obese, Thick or Voluptuous: A Thin Line Between Acceptance and Hate

Model: Shaka G. Image by Blophoto.com

Greetings TVP Family!

During a discussion with friends a few days ago concerning the difference between women being considered obese, thick or voluptuous I was amazed by the level of disrespectful and downright hurtful remarks that were spoken. In fact, I don’t know what was more shocking: the fact that these were friends saying these things or that some women in the group were providing fuel for the fire (keep in mind most of the people in the room fit into one of the aforementioned categories).

I’m sure I’ve said it a million times but the media has done an outstanding job of brainwashing the masses into segmenting what beauty is and is not into convenient labels such as those in the title of this post. We have allowed fashion magazines, billboards and television to dictate what is an acceptable level of beauty as well as the specific sizes contained within that particular level of beauty. Everyone is beautiful, if by no other virtue than by being a child of God. Only our misguided and warped view of beauty (as perpetuated by the media) causes us to label people the way we do.

The truth is it doesn’t matter what size a person is. What is important is our ability to look beyond size and learn to 1. accept our selves and 2. learn to accept others as they are. That does not mean that we do not manage our weight, eat right and maintain as healthy an existence as possible. It does mean that we begin treating people with a little more dignity and respect without belittling them just to feed our own egos (or compensate for our own flaws).

I stumbled upon something online that really brings home the point that I’ve hopefully made: “Fat is not beautiful. Skinny is not beautiful. Beautiful is beautiful”.

Keeping it Real!

Michael

TVP