WEIGHTLOSS AND HEALTH ARE TWO DIFFERENT PURSUITS

Our society leads us to believe that the pursuit of weight loss is the same pursuit as health because we are systematically taught that health = thin.

Look at any advertisement for anything related to health and fitness, and thin bodied people are used to sell whatever is being sold.

Goods and services aren't the only industry that does this.

In fact, our medical systems uses the BMI as a way of classifying what a healthy body looks like and what it doesn't. Meaning someone who is not in a thin body (aka having a BMI of 19-24) is not at a "healthy weight" therefore unhealthy.

Which is absolute bullshit and I explain why here.

And since health is SO much more then just the size of your body, this is a far too limited scope for what health actually is.

If the pursuit of weight loss was the same pursuit of health then all people in thin bodies would be healthy and this is simply not the case.

I've been in a thin body most of my life, but I spent a third of it having migraines, arthritis, and an eating disorder, which is not healthy- no matter what size I was. (I talk a lot about my health struggles in my book Body Wisdom and how I healed)

Health does not equal thin or weight loss.

Furthermore, when people set out to get healthier by making behavioral and lifestyle changes some will lose weight and others will not.

That simply means that weight loss can be a symptom or side effect of getting healthier- but it does not signify health in and of itself.

The people that make these changes and do not lose weight are taught to feel like they are a failure, that they are doing it wrong, that they're not as healthy.

But it is very well scientifically documented that people of all shapes and sizes can be healthy, just like people of all shapes and sizes can be unhealthy.

If you want to pursue health, weight loss does not have to be part of the equation.

Often our pursuit of weight loss is in opposition to our health (mental, emotional, physical, spiritual).

So the question is- is health really want you want or are you just pursing weight loss?