As the holiday’s begin to creep in, and after a lovely Thanksgiving, I am beginning to see an outrageous amount of blogs and magazine articles preaching with their click bait about how to “keep your figure” or “eat clean” during the holidays. Lets be real, they do this in a million different ways using a million different phrases to try to entice women and men to read on. One strategy that they are consistently banking on is SHAME. Shame is a topic that I need to write a whole essay on, but for today I am interested in how shame paired with curiosity and body discontent leads us to these articles and ultimately, to feeling shitty about ourselves.
As long as we are reading these articles we are engaging in negative self talk, hatred/dislike of our natural body, and a belief that on some level we are not good enough as we are in this moment. I am as tempted as the next person by these articles and this is in part due to who I am, and in part due to the incredible over saturation of this type of content on the Internet. People read these articles and then inevitably feel bad about themselves if they are not “disciplined” enough to follow whatever plan the author devised. These plans vary very little from one article to the next, and generally require an acceptance that what you are currently doing needs to change.
I am here to offer something different to you. 1.) Do the work to understand and recognize the way that shame paired with a feeling that you are not “enough” is impacting your life and decisions, 2.) eat what tastes and feels good to your body, 3.) engage in movement that heals you instead of destroys you.
Reminders:
-Weight fluctuation is NORMAL at the holidays, one fool proof way to not obsess about this reality is to throw away your scale!!! There is absolutely NO reason why you need one in your home anyway.
-Part of the joy of the holidays is sharing delicious treats with those that you love most. Not eating these things at the holidays does not make you better than the person next to you.
-Processed food in moderation isn’t terrible. Hating yourself for eating it IS.
-Working out obsessively and punishing your body for eating is not wellness.
-Being gentle with yourself and finding body satisfaction will never come from forcing yourself into the newest and hottest fad/restriction diet.
-Interrupting diet talk whenever possible is not only ok, but it also reminds you that no matter how many folks around you are doing it—you don’t have to!
Go forth and enjoy the Holiday Season, be kind to yourself and others, and for the love of all things good, DO NOT read the garbage out there shaming you for being uniquely YOU. You are wonderfully "enough" exactly as you are!
As long as we are reading these articles we are engaging in negative self talk, hatred/dislike of our natural body, and a belief that on some level we are not good enough as we are in this moment. I am as tempted as the next person by these articles and this is in part due to who I am, and in part due to the incredible over saturation of this type of content on the Internet. People read these articles and then inevitably feel bad about themselves if they are not “disciplined” enough to follow whatever plan the author devised. These plans vary very little from one article to the next, and generally require an acceptance that what you are currently doing needs to change.
I am here to offer something different to you. 1.) Do the work to understand and recognize the way that shame paired with a feeling that you are not “enough” is impacting your life and decisions, 2.) eat what tastes and feels good to your body, 3.) engage in movement that heals you instead of destroys you.
Reminders:
-Weight fluctuation is NORMAL at the holidays, one fool proof way to not obsess about this reality is to throw away your scale!!! There is absolutely NO reason why you need one in your home anyway.
-Part of the joy of the holidays is sharing delicious treats with those that you love most. Not eating these things at the holidays does not make you better than the person next to you.
-Processed food in moderation isn’t terrible. Hating yourself for eating it IS.
-Working out obsessively and punishing your body for eating is not wellness.
-Being gentle with yourself and finding body satisfaction will never come from forcing yourself into the newest and hottest fad/restriction diet.
-Interrupting diet talk whenever possible is not only ok, but it also reminds you that no matter how many folks around you are doing it—you don’t have to!
Go forth and enjoy the Holiday Season, be kind to yourself and others, and for the love of all things good, DO NOT read the garbage out there shaming you for being uniquely YOU. You are wonderfully "enough" exactly as you are!