Lefties and Fatties

Even though some sources show that left-handed people die up to nine years earlier than right-handed people do, we no longer believe lefties are associated with the devil.  At least most rational people don't.  I can't speak for some Tea Partiers who routinely question our lefty president Obama's associations.

image source: Wikimedia Commons

Similarly, we're starting to understand that our society's fat phobia is what needs to be ridiculed, not fat people.  We need to respect the diversity of human bodies.  Some of us are born with a propensity to use our left hand, even in a world that favors righties.  Some of us are born with a propensity to carry extra fat on our bodies, even in a world that favors thinness.  But all of us can be healthy, even in a world that favors profit and body shaming.  We need to jump off the scale and jump into a happy, healthy life.  We need to trust our bodies to tell us what foods make us feel our best and what movements make our bodies feel the strongest.  

I've been a fan of Dr. Linda Bacon's book Health at Every Size® for a couple of years now.  I'm happy to see Dr. Andrew Weil continuing to enjoy his stay in his latest blog post after hopping on the fatty bandwagon last July.  The funny thing is, what I like about Bacon and Weil's message is this: trust yourself.  If we pay more attention to ourselves and less attention to experts and studies and findings and peer-reviewed sources and fads and fashions and all this external stimuli, we'll know what we need to feel our best.

To be your healthiest self, just be yourself.

image source: Wikimedia Commons