The Biggest Body Lie

I hear this all the damn time. “The way you look is the outer expression of the way you treat yourself.”

Buckle in for a screed.
. . .

Fam, I need this to stop. This is a bald-faced lie and if you don’t know it, you should.
Your phenotype bears no moral weight. It is not a punishment for wrong deeds, or a reward for good ones. It is a combination of your genes, the complex hormone interactions between your body and your environment, shit that’s happened to you, and pure accident. Yes, choices you make have some bearing on how you look to the world. The key word is SOME. Not much. Lots of it is completely outside your control.
To suggest that there is some moral weight on what size you are, how wrinkled your skin is, the texture of your hair, the texture of the skin on your butt? Insanity. So much of that has so much to do with factors you cannot affect. The truth is, if someone “looks unhealthy” it might not be that they are “treating themselves badly”. Their actual choices are such a tiny tiny slice of the pie - and honestly? Those are none of your business. You CANNOT know these things merely from looking at someone.

Think about this for a second: That comment above? At its core, it’s based on the idea that there is ONE “right” way to look that you will get to by making the “right” choices. If there was one “right” way for a healthy human body - one that is being “treated well” -to look. If that was REALLY based on overall health, why would that standard change so drastically over time? Why would we be holding bodies up as “ideal” that belong to people who are clearly not treating themselves well? (I’m looking at you, slingers of diet teas). . . .
HMM. . . .

I think we know this in the abstract, but we forget to apply it to ourselves. I don’t mean to say that none of your choices matter- but I DO mean to say that your body and the way it looks are a complex ecosystem and at some point, you can’t control what it looks like. Take a deep breath, fam. Unwind. Let yourself off the hook. If “healthy” is a LOOK for you, re-evaluate. Let’s honor the chaos that is us.

Further resources: “Anti-Diet” by Christy Harrison / The I Weigh Podcast, hosted by Jameela Jamil / the Be Nourished project www.benourished.org

 #haes #allbodiesarebeautiful #nontoxicfitness #personaltrainer #rant 

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