Ever notice how you might ‘feel fat’ on some days more than others? Chances are your body doesn’t change, but your mood does. Fat feelings are a scapegoat for real feelings. It is just hard to see past them to what is really going on.

I know it feels very real. I know you ‘feel’ very fat when you are doing this internal and external fat talk. The thing is, there is no great measure of what objectively qualifies as fat. BMI charts are deeply flawed–I recently read an article stating these charts would show Brad Pitt to be overweight, and George Clooney to be obese.

Weight charts were developed in the early 1900’s by The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Since they were trying to determine mortality risk associated with weight, these charts were based on weighing dead people. Does not seem like a valid tool at all.

I know what you really use to determine your fatness, though. Your eyes, or the way your clothes feel, etc. What you need to understand is people from 82 lbs. to 302 lbs. have these fat feelings. The feeling you are fat has nothing to do with your weight. It has only to do with your head.

There are also people on a broad weight spectrum who feel good in their bodies. Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce do not apologize for their curves–they own them. Marilyn Monroe certainly seemed comfortable in her skin.

There are two problems with fat talk:

1. It keeps you from figuring out what is really bothering you.

2. It makes you more likely to do weird things with food (restrict, binge, etc.)

You think that if you are mean enough to yourself, it will help you eat less and lose weight. Once the weight is off, you would be happy all of the time. That is not what happens, though. You just feel really bad. Which makes you more likely to emotionally eat. You might restrict first, but ultimately you will likely overeat in response to this negative self talk.

This cycle of self loathing and guilt gets constantly repeated. Ugh! So I ask you this: How is this fat talk working out for you? Can you identify with what I am saying here? If so, you are ready for the definition of insanity…

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

So ask yourself a few questions:

1. Do you know absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you are fat? (Hint: the tools we use to measure this are faulty)

2. What would you feel if you found out the weight you are today would always be your weight–no more, no less, for the rest of your life?

3. Who would you be if you didn’t have the thought “I am fat”? What would life be like if that never entered your mind or your conversations?

There is a tremendous freedom that comes from accepting your body. You have all this time available to think about more important things. You start to pay attention to your life in this present moment. It makes you more normal with food. It makes you better able to honor the physical differences in those around you. It makes you more loving towards yourself–and if you are not going to do it, who is?

Visit Jennifer’s Web site at http://www.healthylifestylebalance.com/.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 1st, 2010 at 9:22 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.