Fat isn't the problem. Dieting is the problem. A society that rejects anyone whose body shape or size doesn't match an impossible ideal is the problem. A medical establishment that equates "thin" with "healthy" is the problem. Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight, a book and movement by Lindo Bacon, presents a well-researched, healthy-living manual that debunks the weight myths and translates the latest science into practical advice to people forever end their battle with weight.
This aligns with the Empowered RX vision of empowering girls and women to love themselves as THEY ARE and not as what society tells them they should be. For this reason we have become registered as a HAES: Health at Every Size Practitioner! This means our values, curriculum and coaching aligns with the following principles.
Weight inclusivity
Health Enhancement
Respectful Care
Eating for Well-being
Movement as medicine
Joyful movement
The way these main ideas translate into every day action looks like:
Accepting your true size and weight
Ditching the diet
Ditching the scale
Adopting nourishing, healthy lifestyles
Eating when you're hungry, stopping when you're full
Diet culture is pervasive and heavily dominated by weight stigma. Weight stigma is discrimination based on size and shape. Weight stigma can increase body dissatisfaction, a leading risk factor in eating disorders. The best known contributed to the development of chronic disordered patterns of eating is the societal idealization of thinness.
Most research in the topic of discrimination is focused on gender and race which also intersect the theory of weight stigma. For those of us experiencing the world in larger bodies, we inherently understand the reality of fat-phobia and understand the devaluation and shaming that comes with it. The sad truth is that the world treats people living in larger bodies poorly on both a personal and systemic level.
The constant state of stigma and living in a society that rejects those living in larger bodies leads to declined states of both mental and physical health. A stress response that is pretty much permanent is a result of not feeling accepted or safe in the body we inhabit. This is a form of trauma.
Trauma leads to higher incidences of:
Eating disorders
Anxiety/Depression
Substance Abuse
Addiction
Binge Eating Disorder
Maladaptive Coping
Decreased social activity
Decreased Quality of life
Decreased Movement and Daily Activity
Body Image Issues
Disassociation
Emotional Dysregulation
Increased chances of Heart Disease
Pre-mature aging and death
Society places the onus on the individual living in the larger body where in reality the only issues lie in the societal labeling and stigma that occurs. Health At Every Size recognizes that you cannot tell a person's state of internal health just by looking at their body. There are many people living in smaller bodies with lot's of health issues. There are many people living in larger bodies who are active and happy/healthy despite what stereotypes would predict. The consequences of weight stigma often present more long term chronic health issues than the size of one's body itself.
If you are living in a larger body we advise you to check in with your health status and evaluate if you are practicing healthy daily habits or if there is room to improve. If you are living in a smaller body we ALSO advise you to check in with your health status and evaluate if you are practicing healthy daily habits or if there is room to improve. NO MATTER WHAT BODY YOU ARE LIVING IN, we are here to help you live your healthiest and most empowered life. More often than that women come to us seeking to lose weight, and in reality... the only weight they really need to lose is that of societies damaging expectations.
We find that once we learn more about weight stigma, society beauty standards, and diet culture that women are able to achieve a state of deep health at any size.
In Solidarity,
Empowered RX
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