Re: Fat Acceptance

This post is in response to the article I posted last week from CNN.

I found this article to be particularly interesting primarily because I could identify with the story of the woman's overweight daughter. But I would also like to insert my opinion on the matter.

I've always been "well-built" and stocky. I've always liked to describe myself as a bowling ball: small, but hurts when you drop it on your toe.

I was a little on the chunky side for most of my life and always struggled with my self-esteem. As I began to accept that being chubby was my fate, I became more and more complacent with diet and exercise.

However, when I began to truly LOVE myself to the core, that's when I began to care more and more about my health and fitness.

I think there is a fine line between accepting yourself and loving yourself. When you love yourself, you genuinely care for your body's well-being and take steps to improving the way you treat your body. Sometimes the result is weight-loss, sometimes not.

This is why there is such a challenge for health care professionals (public health professionals included!). Too many people are in acceptance mode, which I feel results in behavioral complacency. In health behaviorist speak (and according to the Transtheoretical Model), we would call these folks the "pre-contemplaters" (reference: Prochaska and DiClemente's Stages of Change Model). We want those pre-contemplaters, especially those with heinous health behaviors, move into contemplation, preparation, and action modes. How can we do this when we're now telling people it's okay to be fat?

I think everyone can make changes and improvements to health behaviors. I also think there are positive and negative ways to go about making changes, for example, there are positive and negative motivations for making changes. Negative motivation: to look like a super model; Positive motivation: to feel good physically, mentally, and spiritually. I think that by achieving self-love, our internal compasses will direct us all toward positive health behavior change.