Jumper: Wallis. Skirt: Vintage. Shoes: New Look via eBay
Well, here’s a thing. Since blogging about my refusal to feel guilty for putting on a few pounds over Christmas, I have, it turns out, lost a few pounds. Not all of those I gained yet, but it reflects what I said – I’m back into my normal daily routine, which involves more movement and fewer large meals with family than Christmas week, and my body is adjusting back to its normal state accordingly.
I haven’t lost half of the festive flub by suddenly denying myself the foods I enjoy (I like my food far too much for that – I’m absolutely with Caroline on the pleasure to be found in delicious food and the wonderfulness of feeling free to enjoy it, rather than denying yourself based on what other people might think) or throwing myself into an exercise regime that’s too intense to be sustained alongside the rest of my life for longer than a couple of weeks. It’s just gone away while I’ve been doing what I normally do.
Most importantly, the extra weight is going without me for one second feeling bad about myself, despite the general impression from the media that I am supposed to feel bad. Ads for all sorts of weight loss techniques have been pelted at me every time I’ve turned on the TV since January 1st, and the media seems to assume that we’re all in a desperate battle against a rogue half stone.
Well, I am no longer buying. I had nary a moment of guilt over gluttony and shed not a single tear over tighter jeans. I have learned to love the body I have and the woman inhabiting it, and I accept a little seasonal fluctuation in weight as culturally more or less inevitable and nothing to stress out about.
Sal has talked eloquently about making peace with a seasonal weight shift cycle, and I think she is absolutely right. I am basically healthy. A few lb, predictably gained at a time when it is a cultural habit to move less and eat more, won’t really affect that, unless my eating and exercise habits are totally overturned by a couple of weeks of festive excess (good grief, no – I’m craving fruit and salad by the time January begins, as a general rule!).
We are sold, culturally, the message that we should feel bad, whether we are currently 2lb or 2 stone over our ideal healthy weight. A few gained pounds must be lost immediately. We are supposed to want to ‘get that swimsuit body’ instead of to feel ok about putting the body we do have into a swimsuit.
And as I’ve talked about before, even where weight loss would be beneficial for health reasons, using Must Lose Weight as a cudgel is so negative. It’s hard to see how taking positive steps to improve your physical health can be assisted by self-criticism and denial that hurt your emotional wellbeing.
Listen to your body, love it, allow the person inside it to be human and have its indulgences occasionally and the chances are it will be easier to treat it right overall than if bits of it are regarded as the enemy. And isn’t that healthier for your soul as well as your body?
