Do you have a big butt? Is being on the floor uncomfortable for you? Check out this video for ideas on how to make savasana/final relaxation actually, you know, RELAXING.
WHAT WE'RE ABOUT
RBI focuses on using expressive writing, design-oriented work, photography, media, research, and community input to fuel fat positive, body acceptance, discussion, and outreach. Our goal is to redefine the way we view and think about body image, size, fat, discrimination, health, fitness, wellness, mental/chronic illness, stigma, and other related topics.
We are constantly redefining our own perspectives, and therefore tend to write a lot about our personal experiences. Many followers and contributors are living with anorexia, bulimia, body dysmorphic disorder, depression, and a variety of other body image disorders or mental illnesses, so please be respectful and remember that health applies differently to everyone. Any and all potentially triggering content will be prefaced with a trigger warning.
RBI supports all races, genders, classes, and sizes. We try our best to make this a safe space for everyone. If we are not doing our job or checking our privilege, we invite you to please inform us.
Some of the artwork you see here has been created by our founder or moderators, some sourced when applicable. Please be kind enough to source this blog whenever you share it's content.
We are not health professionals. Any and all advice provided on this blog is supported only by our own research, studies, and personal experiences; nothing more.
This blog is part of the Safe Space Network.
We are constantly redefining our own perspectives, and therefore tend to write a lot about our personal experiences. Many followers and contributors are living with anorexia, bulimia, body dysmorphic disorder, depression, and a variety of other body image disorders or mental illnesses, so please be respectful and remember that health applies differently to everyone. Any and all potentially triggering content will be prefaced with a trigger warning.
RBI supports all races, genders, classes, and sizes. We try our best to make this a safe space for everyone. If we are not doing our job or checking our privilege, we invite you to please inform us.
Some of the artwork you see here has been created by our founder or moderators, some sourced when applicable. Please be kind enough to source this blog whenever you share it's content.
We are not health professionals. Any and all advice provided on this blog is supported only by our own research, studies, and personal experiences; nothing more.
This blog is part of the Safe Space Network.
What is it like to be pregnant while fat?
I have been working on this post for a long time in my head. Both consciously and subconsciously, I have been making a list of those things that make me different from the “average” pregnant woman just because of my…
[Image: Typographic message on pink duotone background photo of my naked back as I perform a stretch: “I move as a form of self care, to incite mental wellness. ‘Fitness’ looks different for everybody.”]
Part four of my personal poster series focuses on the vagueness of society’s definition of “health and fitness”, how it should be defined differently for each and everyone one of us (whether we are able-bodied, disabled, mentally or chronically ill, etc), and how I’ve learned to define it for myself.
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“Are Health at Every Size and Size Acceptance the Same?” by Ragen Chastain
All I ever do is quote Ragen, but I mean…come on. She’s such a wonderful teacher.
I also just realized that I mostly refer to Fat Acceptance, sometimes Size Acceptance, and wonder if I shouldn’t nail down my wording and stance more carefully.
Asked dramatisation
First, my apologies for taking so long to respond - I got a ton of messages this week and am just now combing through the ones I’ve missed.
Second - my philosophy is that people have every right to do what they feel they need to do with their bodies, for the sake of their own health and wellness. You know your body better than I do - I would never presume to know what is best for you. I can only speak to my own experiences and what I feel is best for me and why.
You can certainly love your body while wanting to change it at the same time.
A common misconception is that people love to think fat acceptance advocates go around condemning people for wanting to lose weight. That is not the case. The whole point is to stop policing what other people do with their bodies and how they handle their own situations.
As a result, I tend to speak on behalf of those who live in fat bodies and can not afford to focus on weight loss as a goal or a need, because that is my experience.
What needs to be recognized is that everyone’s abilities and ways of dealing with health and fitness are completely unique. Disabilities, privileges, mental disorders, and chronic illnesses all come into play when considering one’s goals in attaining personally defined levels of health.
That is why Health at Every Size works so well for me (and others), as a fat person who used to focus on weight loss for a long time and was constantly discouraged by my body’s inability to live up to an ideal. This discouragement became unhealthy as I began to look toward destructive ways of thinking and disordered eating habits in order to drop a dress size. In short - I was adapting unhealthy habits in order to fit my body into what society deems to be a “healthy” size.
So I decided to focus on other things that are much more important and beneficial to my health and mental state - Because to me, being healthy and happy is not about losing weight. I created this space for myself and others who align with that way of thinking, who can’t afford to think about weight loss, who are tired of beating themselves up for not fitting into universally accepted and enforced societal standards of health and beauty.
But that is me. Your story is different, your journey is different, your ways of thinking and your abilities are different. I respect and understand that as something that can be discussed and detailed in your own space, but weight loss discussion is generally only spoken of here as a source of frustration and shame, because that is what we have experienced.
That being said, there are super-active and healthy fatties in the world, too. Fatties who don’t get winded and have no problem doing physical things. There are also fatties with disabilities who have other items to factor into their picture of health. It all depends.
Just know that at some point, if your body isn’t responding or fitting the ideal you have constructed in your mind - I urge you to reconsider which route to take in order to find that magic level of health and happiness that is unique to you. Because “losing weight” and “making healthy choices” that are right for YOU are two very different things.
I hope I was able to help <3
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“Save me from what ‘everybody knows’” by Ragen Chastain
[WARNING: Photos at the link show the state of a sick and emaciated body before seeking treatment for an eating disorder. I think it’s really important to include these photos along with this post as the overall story is that of overcoming adversity and seeking personal health, however they can be super triggering, so I’ll keep them under a link.]
[removed photos for possibly triggering nature]
BEFORE/AFTER PICTURES: HEALTH EDITION
TW: EATING DISORDER
I’ve been wanting to make this post for quite a while. I’ve seen before/after pictures all my life. In fact, there was a period of time when I searched for them obsessively, trying to convince myself I could be the “after” photo if the “before” person could, too. But before/after photos generally aren’t about health or fitness, but about weight loss. And I’m here to tell you: they aren’t the same thing.
I had problems with food perhaps my whole life. I grew up in a dieting culture, in a dieting household. I went on my first diet in the fourth grade, and was praised for it. I went on my first fast in the seventh grade. I started restricting seriously when I was sixteen. I became obsessed with dieting and exercising at seventeen. I was still not the modelesque girls in the “after” photos. I saw too much “before” still. Health and fitness became an obnoxious facade for the real desire: weight loss.
On my eighteenth birthday I realized I had an eating disorder because I had a panic attack at the thought of having to eat birthday cake. From then forward my health spiraled downward. I was eating as few calories as I could, and burning/purging as many as I could get away with. I would exercise for hours at the gym, and yet I couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded. My body was so weak, I had difficulty standing for long periods of time without feeling faint.
The abuse I put my body through: the restricting/fasting, the binging/purging (and sometimes one without the other, although mostly purging without binging), the over-exercising, it all resulted in weight-loss while sacrificing health and fitness. And yet people in our society don’t seem to get that they’re not synonymous. I would have family friends approach me to tell me how good I looked, how fit I must be, how healthy I must be. Every compliment I received brought bile to my mouth. Couldn’t they see I was ill? Couldn’t they see how sick I was?
The thing is, many of them could see how sick I was. One of my mom’s friends said to me, “You’ve gotten so skinny! You must not be eating. Are you not eating? Good for you! Keep it up. I need to start doing that. What a great way to get in shape.” I really wish I were kidding. But the fact is, people think losing weight by starving yourself counts as getting into shape. People see “being in shape” as literally looking like you have no body fat, rather than being in the best physical condition your body can be in.
People would tell me I “looked fit.” As if you could “look” fit. As if fitness had a physical shape. You know what? I wasn’t fit. I was ill.
I was so ill, that when I tried to get better, my body rejected it. For a long time. It had gotten used to less than five hundred calories a day. It had gotten used to throwing up any time I felt remotely full. It had gotten used to functioning without any fat or sugar in my diet. When I was hospitalized, it was really difficult for me to keep food down. Everything made me feel sick. I would eat a normal meal, my stomach would swell as if I were pregnant, and I would be in so much pain I’d cry through the therapy sessions. We did yoga in the eating disorder treatment program. I was one of the worst at it. I had no balance, and everything made me out of breath. My muscles would shake even doing downward dog.
And that brings us to the “AFTER” photos. I was diligent about recovery. I stuck to the meal plan my nutritionist gave me. I made sure to exercise regularly, without over doing it. Part of my meal plan involved eating dessert every day. So I ate dessert every day. Part of my recovery was to engage in unconditional self love. So I embraced myself, my body, and my love for myself like it was a religion.
I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been. I’ve gained 75 pounds since I was checked into the eating disorder clinic three years ago, and am 5 sizes larger. But you know what? I am healthy now. I have a balanced diet. I exercise for the sake of health and fitness, not weight loss. I do yoga, and without shaking and panting. I have balance. This is what health looks like for me. This is what fitness looks like for me.
I encourage all of you, find your own health and fitness. Find your own balance. Don’t compare your body to other people’s bodies. Your body is uniquely your own. Therefore, your health and fitness are uniquely your own. Fat does not negate health and fitness. Thinness does not guarantee it.
I found this webcomic Sauceome AGES ago. It started off as a food diary ad weight loss journey for the author Sarah Becan but along the way it’s turned into her loving her body no matter what and enjoying food. She seriously loves food and she posts recipes occasionally. She makes me hungry a lot.
Here’s the address http://www.sauceome.com/
Here’s a good example of her work that definitely embraces the HAES idea :) http://www.sauceome.com/?p=446
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This is so awesome!!!! Thank you for sharing.
<3 Haley
Asked peacenikj92
As I’ve adapted Health at Every Size as a way of helping me practice my own unique health and wellness methods, I find any sort of weight-loss related media to be damaging to my mental health and progress.
So I don’t watch The Biggest Loser or other shows like it, as part of a stringent Media Diet to deflect sources of fat shaming in my life that can be triggering.
Also - This article touches on a few things I agree with on the subject.
This is Redefining Body Image’s go-to list of resources, articles, research, videos, etc. providing facts and information regarding health and body image, especially dedicated to debunking the everyone’s favorite myth that fat = unhealthy.
If I referred you to this page and this way of thinking about fat and fat health is new to you, I encourage you to have an open mind.
If you have something to add, please submit! The more this list grows, the more ammo we have to back us up in our fight against the body positive nay-sayers.
Let the facts come marching in.
- Big Fat Facts: The truth about fat, obesity, gastric bypass, and weight loss. Focuses on many aspects of fat health that are widely accepted but never challenged, targets the claims, points out the faults, and highlights the truth.
- This TED talk by Julie Rochefort called “Shift the Focus” discusses and displays a lot of really important data based around the fact that health is possible at EVERY size. A short 8 minute video that covers a lot of ground in a short amount of time.
- This extensive article by Glenn Gaesser, Ph.D. called Obesity, Health, and Metabolic Fitness debunks a number of myths regarding fat health. Many important topics are covered, from “thinner is not necessarily healthier” to “emphasis on weight loss” being “misdirected and hazardous”, to challenging the link between obesity and heart disease. A very comprehensive and informative resource.
- A massive list of resources discussing the truth behind fat health can be found over at Big Liberty Blog, titled Truth Behind Fat: References.
- One of my staple resources, Kate Harding answers the ever popular question directed at fat activists: “But Don’t You Realize Fat Is Unhealthy?”
- Some more from the lovely Kate Harding: “Reality vs. Relativism“ and ”Diets Don’t Work”.
- Ever wanted to learn more about Fat Acceptance? Check out the Fat Acceptance FAQ over at Spilt Milk, complete with a list of links to some great health-related info.
- A scientific study helping to prove how diets really work by, Junkfood Science - How We’ve Come to Believe that Overeating Causes Obesity
- More of Me to Love discusses fat health, fitness, and health at every size.
- Everyone Knows Obesity Is Hurting Us, But Is the Fight Against Obesity the Problem? - Linda Bacon, Ph.D.
- The Health At Every Size® Manifesto.
- Heart Surgeon Speaks Out Against What Really Causes Heart Disease - A very interesting and informative piece that details new studies on heart disease.
- Weight Science: Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift
- Medicare’s search for effective obesity treatments: diets are not the answer.
- The TRUE Cost of Fatties - Looking closely at how obesity impacts gas costs and health care, which is to say not at all.
- More on Obesity and Healthcare Costs here.
- Stereotype Management Skills by Deb Burgard, PhD. discusses how to refute fat shaming propaganda, among other helpful things.
- Uncommon Knowledge About Changes in Body Weight by Lily O’Hara
- Things Obesity is Not by Ragen Chastain
- ‘Everyone knows’ obesity kills, but is weight loss the answer? by Lydia Turner
- Above-Normal Weight Alone Does Not Necessarily Increase Short-Term Risk of Death, U.S. Data Suggest - Science Daily, July 2012
And that’s where I’m leaving it for now, but not forever!
Thank you.
Hello all! Reblogging this as I’ve added a few links and wanted to know if any of you knew of some sources I should definitely be adding to this list. Drop me a line :)
Let’s talk about weightlifting.
This is a typical GIS hit for “woman lifting weights.” Most of them are very thin, very lean, with no visible distinct musculature going on. (Unsurprisingly, stock-photo wise, they’re almost all exclusively white and long-haired and feminine, although I did see a few POC and an older woman in the hits which was INCREDIBLY refreshing!) They all tend to be lifting small weights.
Now, let’s see what happens if we google female weightlifters, i.e., people who lift frequently enough to identify that way whether by hobby or career or whatever. (I’ve done this a few times, and the results are a bit skewed at the moment, given the proximity in timing to the Olympics, so suddenly lots more Olympic women are showing up—which is great! Just FYI.) The photo below is pretty standard for what you get usually—a very lean woman, with heavier looking weights, with visible muscles, a six-pack, etc.
Googling female bodybuilding yields similar results, only the women are much much bigger, much much leaner, with far more defined musculature. (This is what most people will think of in a knee-jerk reaction to the term female weightlifter, and is what many mean when they say they don’t want to “get bulky” by lifting weights. Guess what? Getting built like that, much like getting supermodel skinny, is based hugely on genetics and hugely on a ton of work an dieting and super careful eating and working out and supplements and often steroids. It’s not magic and it doesn’t just happen by lifting weights.)
Note the leanness. See the tendons? See the very visible delineations between muscles, the curves where muscles go places, in all three photos? What’s missing?
There’s a secret in the weightlifting fitspo communities. Once you move into weightlifting, the focus blissfully falls away from “Eat less! Do hours of cardio!” to “Eat more! Lift more!” For women’s resources, with the exception of great sites like Nia Shanks’s etc., the underlying message remains: lift weights to get slimmer and more toned. Lift weights to show off your perky butt. Lift weights to build muscle which burns more calories which makes you slimmer. Lift weights to eat more without getting fat. You have to eat more, but you need to eat more a certain way, or you’ll just put on body fat. Lean mass, no fat. Fat fat fat fat fat.
The body fat obsession. The obsession exists very much in men’s weightlifting culture as well, just differently—“Eat tons and bulk as much as you can to make huge muscle gains and to gain weight” alternates with “Try carbo backloading or protein binges or intermittent fasting to get cut.” “Gain tons of lean mass while reducing body fat! Gain weight while getting more cut! Stay toned!”
Toned. Cut. I hate those words. They’re the thigh gap of weightlifting, the collarbones, the ribcages, the “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” of people who have broken out of the standard body mindset shell long enough to challenge and free themselves in some ways, only to get trapped in others.
I did. I totally did. I fell down the rabbithole. Because I fucking love weightlifting, because I’m short and thick and chubby and it makes me feel strong and sexy and powerful and my body yearns for it and loves doing it. Even while I was increasing what I ate because to build muscle, to lift heavier and heavier things, you *have* to eat more, you have to have a caloric surplus—you cannot build muscle out of nothing, building means creating, means you have to something there to make it out of—even while I was doing that, even when for the first time in my life I stopped caring about what the scale said, even when the numbers creeped up, even when I am at my all-time highest weight *and feeling healthier and more energetic than I ever have*—I found myself trying to cut weight.
I found myself embracing the muscles and the gain and the food, I found my metabolism and body rejoicing in the protein and the exercise, and I found myself hating the bits of fat I found. My stomach. My hips. Looking up diets, looking up weird eating patterns to cut fat, cut fat, fat fat fat fat fat. There’s that word again. Not cut, not toned.
Cut. Toned. You know who isn’t cut or toned, but still lifts really fucking heavy weights? REALLY fucking heavy weights that the rest of us dream of?
So fuck you, fitspo. Fuck you cut, fuck you toned, fuck you crazy diets and crazy exercises to burn fat. As long as I eat what my body needs to do what I want it to do, I just don’t care.
I fucking love this and totally want to take up weightlifting as part of my ~obese lifestyle~ cause pretty much fuck fitspo.
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I don’t usually take quotes from comment threads on blog posts, but when I do - they are pretty fabulous. This just speaks to me so directly right now.