In Pursuit of Health: Weight Vs. Total Fitness

This post brought to you by a friend of mine's wanting to lose weight even though she's at a perfectly healthy BMI. Granted, her choices are her choices, and she seems in control enough and to have a healthy enough perspective to not push any weight loss too far. However, when someone thinner than me (for the record, at around 140 pounds and 5 foot 1, I've just crossed into that "overweight" category) is dissatisfied with their body to the point of wanting to diet...I can't help but cringe inside.

I cringe because I feel that somehow we've lost sight of the true goal of health and have put the focus all on a number on a scale, which is a rather lacking (or at least limited) measure of health imo. I cringe because as a woman I see this obsessive focus on pursuit of the "ideal body" all around me. The distorted images are all around in the media, and while I think most people know that these ideals are 1) not attainable to most and 2) not even necessarily a reflection of a model's reality, we've still bought into the lie that a healthy body has to look a certain way.

There's something almost subversive about declaring acceptance for one's body as it is. If a woman (especially, but men can struggle with this too) says that, people respond like she is "letting herself go" and doesn't care about her health. But paradoxically, if we treat our bodies right, we will arrive at the weight that's healthy for us. And care for our bodies begins first with acceptance. I love the approach of Health at Any Size - the pursuit of health rather than thinness. I'd also like to give a shout-out to dietician Rebecca Scritchfield (a fellow JHU MA in Communications alum!) for embracing these ideals.

It is easier said than done. I admittedly would be happy to lose weight myself. It's not something I'm actively striving for, however. That is partially because when I do strive to lose weight, it doesn't happen, but when I don't (like suffering a mild depressive bought and losing my appetite) that's when I end up losing the pounds. I can't help but think that's not healthy. But yes, I would like flatter abs, a more toned back, and to be "safely" within the "normal" BMI again (all my weight goes to my mid-section, and of course my chest.

But what I am trying to strive for is health - health in all forms, mental, emotional, and spiritual included. Health to me means nurturing my body instead of trying to mold it into something it's not. It means being active and moving my body as it was meant to move. It means feeding it when it's hungry (no deprivation diets!) and fueling it with healthy, nurturing things. It means allowing myself treats, but recognizing that some of the stuff I put in my body is just empty, useless calories - I'm looking at you, Mountain Dew I gulped on an empty stomach for a quick caffeine fix the other day. It means getting adequate rest, allowing myself down time when I need it - not pushing myself beyond my limits in an effort to "master" my body. And when I treat my body right, I feel better, and, I believe, look better.

It goes against American ideals to say this, but so much about our bodies isn't really in our control anyway. I'm short and busty - this is the body I was given. While I can tone through fitness or diet to try to bring down my weight, that only goes so far. So I choose to embrace the body I was given, to nurture it into the fullness of health.