What if you decided to accept yourself?
I just recently went to go see Joy in the movie theatres. (SPOILER ALERT) The film was your standard Cinderella story. A young female entrepreneur overcomes the odds and becomes successful and rich and beautiful. It's the story of the American Dream. And, if you live in the United States of America, it's something we've all been taught to believe in.
I won't unpack that one. John Oliver has already very much unpacked that idea on his popular HBO show.
I think part of the appeal of the weight loss story is that many people see it as a viable American dream. It seems more realistic. It seems within reach. I mean, planet fitness is only like, what? $10/month?
You just go to the gym and eat vegetables and voila! Perfect body, right?
If that were true, the diet industry wouldn't be a billion dollar industry.
That's why the diet industry is fucked up. It's more insidious than Republicans touting the belief that you can pull yourself up from your bootstraps because more people are willing to acknowledge structural inequality.
But, for some reason, when it comes to losing weight, it seems totally reasonable to people that weight loss is attainable for some people.
This belief, however, is actually contrary to the science. Set point theory has shown that people's sizes are pretty much determined by genetics.
Even though people's sizes might as well be the same as being tall or short, black or white, we still get angry with people who are unable to keep their body size small for a prolonged period of time.
Last year, I talked about how accepting your body now is an important part of intuitive eating. It's the crucial step.
As long as you're hoping to be smaller, you will not fully allow yourself to eat. You will be restricting on some level and your body will make sure to compensate for it because you're never really giving up on the idea that famine is just around the corner.
We're really arguing about the unicorn scenario. We're arguing about 5% of people who give up a lot to have these dream bodies and judging the 95% who aren't unicorns for not being unicorns.
I mean, not being a unicorn shouldn't be a crime.