The picture on the left is the only picture I have close to my highest weight (367lbs). You can see the humiliation, pain, and sadness in my face and eyes. The picture on the right was a couple of days ago and while I’m not looking at the camera, my body language is more confident and congruent with the way I feel about myself.
It hurts to look at the picture on the left. Not because I was ashamed to be who I was, but because I didn’t love myself then. It wasn’t until a few months later when I made the decision to have gastric bypass surgery that I started on a path to learn to love myself wholly. When I accepted that I am who I am, I was able to change what I needed to change.
I’m body positive. Does this mean I think being fat/obese is healthy? No. It wasn’t for for me by any means, but the more I shamed myself for my weight, and the more I internalized the hatred and stigma placed upon me by the media and society at large, the more I -gained- weight and lost faith in myself. Shaming people to lose weight doesn’t help them; it only hurts. When you’ve grown up with food as a coping skill (possibly the only one), when you feel hurt and degraded by the negative comments about your weight, you turn to food for comfort. It’s a viscous catch-22 that no one should be subjected to. It isn’t “coddling” to let an obese person feel good about their body–it’s freeing. It returns to them their humanity and autonomy. When people feel good, they continue to make good changes in their lives.
Raise each other up and celebrate you for whatever stage or journey you’re in. You can accomplish more than you know when you believe in yourself. https://www.instagram.com/p/BMkxYHeAypR/
MotiveWeight http://motiveweight.tumblr.com/post/152932388847
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