[wpseo_breadcrumb]
Written by Meg Kant
Stop Wishing Your Body Was Different: A New Years Resolution
Right now you are most likely being inundated with all the ways you should try to improve yourself this year. With advertising about gym memberships, and diets (even Noom, which says it’s not a diet but it is) flooding your news feeds. It can feel overwhelming and trigger a lot of shame, so I wanted to offer a different option that is not as mainstream but filled with way more joy.
How many years has weight loss been your resolution?
How many years have you spent trying to change your body, hoping that by doing so it will finally make you happy (even though it has been your resolution every year for as long as you can remember and every year you feel like you failed at it)? What if instead of making the same resolution you tried something different?
I spent over a decade making new year’s resolutions to try and shrink my body. No matter how hard I tried, or how much weight I lost (and subsequently gained back) it never delivered the feeling I thought it would. I never felt like I’d done enough. And rather than wondering if perhaps the task I was trying to accomplish was flawed, I believed that if I just tried harder and was more disciplined, the results would be different. I never once thought maybe the problem isn’t me, maybe it’s the culture of weight loss that we live in.
The ever-moving target
Christy Harrison has a great quote about how “diet culture is the water that we swim in”. To see Christy’s definition of Diet Culture click here. You can see it absolutely everywhere. In movies, tv shows, commercials and social media. It is no wonder thinness is believed to be the pursuit of happiness. But have you ever actually felt like you’ve done enough? Even after losing weight, you must tone, build up your strength, shred, etc. The target is ever-moving because it isn’t actually about losing weight, it is about the unspoken promise that weight loss will make you feel happier.
10 years ago I wouldn’t have believe anything I am writing
I’m not gonna lie, if someone had said this to me 10 years ago I would have been outraged, it would have gone in one ear and out the other. There was no way you could convince me that the pursuit of weight loss wasn’t the most important thing in the world. But 10 years ago my mental health was also the worst it had ever been, my depression and anxiety were having a field day, and I was suffering through panic attacks by myself. I didn’t know how to admit I needed help. Weight loss became the hat I would hang my anxiety on, and it caused me so much suffering.
more joy, less shame = great resolution
If you are looking for more joy this year, less shame and deeper connection, putting down the pursuit of weight loss might be just what you need. Not only to stop the hamster wheel of weight gain and loss but to start to intimately understand that your body is straight-up magic. Right as it is.
If you want some support and connection on making this resolution a reality, sign up for our Stop Wishing Your Body Was Different: A Workshop on How to Feel At Home in Your Bod!
This workshop is for you if you have ever:
- Felt shame about your body
- Felt like your body was wrong
- Worried about wearing a bathing suit
- Been embarrassed to go up a size in clothes
- Been on a diet
- So much more
This workshop is $47 USD – Click here to sign up!
Does this sound like a resolution you can get behind? Share away in the comments!
Stop Wishing Your Body Was Different: A New Years Resolution
Click here to sign up to have the Hot + Brave blog land in your inbox every week!
Xoxo,
FREE ONLINE MINI-COURSE
BLISS IN BUSINESS RETREAT
Your future is created by what you do today — that's why we created a completely FREE mindset mini-course to help doulas and birth workers find bliss in their business!