The top article on the Odyssey this week is about the body positivity moment – completely trashing everything it is about. The body positivity movement is about loving your body and giving yourself affirmation instead of waiting for someone else to give it to you. Within the article, the writer slams everything positive about the movement, claiming that mental health isn’t as important as physical health – and this is why they are wrong.
The correlation between mental and physical health is extremely close. Having a positive mental mindset of yourself leads you to better moods, more endorphins, which equals more energy to go out and work physically on your body. And just because someone is showing body positivity doesn't mean they are advocating for an unhealthy lifestyle, they're simply promoting an overall sense of strong mental health, which can lead to better physical health.
Being fit and healthy physically is not about your weight, either. It's about endurance and getting out there and getting exercise in any means whether it's walking, going on the elliptical, or weight training. Someone can bust their ass for hours in the gym every day for weeks and not lose any weight, but that doesn't mean they aren't getting fit. Everyone has a different body type, which means everyone loses weight differently. Just because someone can't go shed 20 pounds on a rowing machine doesn't mean they aren't putting in the work towards a more fit lifestyle. I don't think the author thought about this when she said, "when can healthy be sexy?"
In the article, the author claims that one-third of women in the US are obese, but what is that based off of? BMI scales are bullshit. People carry their weight different in many different ways, making it an unrealistic way of testing for body mass. If someone of a more athletic is more muscular, they are going to weigh more. If they put their height and weight into a BMI scale, it’s going to come out as overweight and putting them into that third of the population. But you would never call them fat, would you?
In the end, you only have yourself and you need to love yourself so no one else has to. All shapes and sizes are beautiful in their own way. Being skinny is great, being overweight is great too. As long as your striving to be the healthiest person you can be inside and out, you are doing great and you should never let an article determine your self-worth. Steve Maraboli wrote in his book Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience, "there is nothing rarer, nor more beautiful, than a woman being unapologetically herself; comfortable in her perfect imperfection. To me, that is the true essence of beauty.” So go out, be unapologetically you and love yourself for all you are, because the most important relationship you can have in this world is the one you have with yourself.
