Health
Ah, the joy of being schooled on a completely misleading concept.
“Health at Every Size”
It sounds nice doesn’t it? I thought so too. But I was wrong…oh so wrong. When I first discovered HAES, I foolishly took it to mean making my health a priority regardless of my resulting size/weight/BMI. I thought, “Hey, here’s something to embrace, to guide my life, to motivate me to do all the things for my body that I needed to do, but was too afraid or lazy or self-conscious to do before.” First, I began to change my eating habits back to the low glycemic diet (diet as in regimen, not confine of choice), which previously helped me to have more energy. Why? Because sugar and other refined carbohydrates are a lie. They make you feel good for a moment, then they drag you down, leaving you with no nutritional value. Next, I started an exercise routine, namely, swimming laps at the local rec. center.
But wait! I violated the rules! Via a fat acceptance website, I was not-so-gently informed that I was doing HAES wrong and that my attempts to initiate a dialogue on the concept were unwelcome. Acceptance my ass.
You see, HAES has nothing to do with health and is actually rather fascist regarding size and life choices. Here’s where I’m apparently doing it wrong:
1. In HAES, “health” means do whatever you want. Crave sweets? Eat a donut. Crave more? Eat a whole cake. Feel like never exercising? Then that must be right for you. It’s “healthy” only if it’s what you want to do. There is no concept of need (except when it’s selectively equated with want). The medical community is ignored because they lack consensus (though a single study on intuitive eating is thrown around ad nauseum).
2. Size DOES matter. According to the HAES professionals, you cannot intentionally lose weight. Oddly enough, you can intentionally gain weight. I’d explain it if I understood.
3. A lifestyle change is completely in violation of HAES, as the doctrine of blogs clearly states that a “lifestyle change” is a diet (not as in a regimen of food, but a confine of choice), period, end of story. So by starting a swimming regimen and changing my eating habits, I failed.
4. Scientific research means nothing. Because qualitative and quantitative research doesn’t include every single person on the planet in the sample or isn’t a complete health profile on each individual, it is worthless. As a trained researcher, this is offensive.
I’m left to wonder what I should do now. When I discovered the fat acceptance movement, I thought I had found a place to belong. But it’s now oh so clear that the majority of people in the movement are too busy standing still and telling the world to leave them alone, instead of examining and continually reshaping the movement and the concepts, allowing them to evolve as such movements naturally should. My quest for an intellectual discussion was met with nastiness and a handful of personal anecdotes. But why listen to me, with my masters degree focused on such change initiatives, when you can listen to people with popular blogs. HAES, with its “do what you want, just don’t lose weight” attitude will flop faster than third wave feminism. If the concept can mean anything to anyone, it will never be taken seriously because it really doesn’t mean shit.
I love my body, but I will not love it to death. Peace.
