WHAT WE'RE ABOUT
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.
Asked Anonymous
I think it is awesome, although my knowledge and experience with it is relatively limited. HAES (Health at Every Size) is a way to think about health that explicitly rejects weight loss as a productive goal. This makes total sense to me. Most of the studies I’ve looked at about the issue show that A) fat doesn’t necessarily make someone unhealthy and hasn’t been proven to cause the health problems it is often connected to (correlation is NOT causation) B) even if fat DID cause said health problems, there has never been a statistically significant weight-loss study where the majority of participants went from obese to normal weight and stayed there for the long term so science has no idea how to achieve weight loss and C) healthy habits make healthy bodies REGARDLESS OF WEIGHT.
By rejecting weight loss as a goal, HAES refocuses the conversation about health on habits, which is much more effective and much less stigmatizing. It also says that health looks different for every body, and encourages people to find paths to health that work for them, and not feel like they need to conform to an approved set of behaviors to be healthy. I think this is all to the good, and I always encourage people who ask me about fat and health to look into HAES.
All that said, I think it is important to recognize that health isn’t a productive or achievable goal for everyone, nor does it EVER determine a human being’s worth. I think most people want to be healthy, but for those who don’t or can’t be, it is important to remember that EVERY PERSON DESERVES RESPECT REGARDLESS OF HEALTH. All human beings have value, and all bodies deserve dignity.
(TW ED)
I have been recovering from bulimia nervosa/substance abuse problems for nearly a year now. There has never been a point in my life where I have been happy with myself or my appearance so I would always try to change and numb myself out through weight-loss and getting high. Through recovery I am slowly learning that size is of ZERO importance, and has absolutely nothing to do with my happiness or self-worth. Despite continuous relapses I am still pushing towards health and happiness and a positive body image. Because I deserve it.
Hey, I’m Penny, and this is just my story that I felt I needed to tell.
I’ve been extremely self conscious of my legs my whole life, feeling they were too big, too fat, too wobbly and just plain ugly. I have big thighs and bigger calves, and although most days I appreciate what I can do with them, some days all the pictures of toothpick legs get me down. I was born with larger and stronger than average leg muscles than normal - on the day I was born, I could support my full weight, only using my parent’s hands for balance.
I don’t know why, and I don’t know what started it, but by the time is was three years old, I was already unhappy with them. THREE YEARS OLD. I went to my (very skinny) cousins’ house, and we were having lunch, and I remember thinking “I won’t sit down, because then my legs will look even bigger than they already do.” I find this really saddening, that in our society, a three year old girl feels that her legs are too fat to sit down at lunch. Anyway, to get on with it, after tons of support from my friends, and many hours spent on this beautiful blog, I finally feel content with my legs, and am embracing my thunder thighs <3
I don’t always wear yellow, but when I do, I’m silly as fuck.
Love yourself everyday. Your opinion is the only one that matters. A thousand people could say that you are fat, ugly, or unfortunate looking. Another thousand could praise you for your beauty.
Does it matter?
Embrace your body. Hell, I try to.
Relevant to the discussion of fat-shaming doctors, this is a list of doctors worldwide who cater to fat-bodied individuals. Many of the doctors on this list offer things such as larger blood pressure cuffs, bigger hospital gowns, and don’t blame every medical problem a patient comes in with.
It’s not by any means a full list, nor does it cover every area, so if you have a fat-friendly doctor who’s not on the list, get in contact with the site to get them added!
This is an excellent resources so I thought it would be of help to those who face stigma from their current medical professionals :)
I thought I would share a photo from my recent shoot. I am a USA size 16 and I am so proud of who I am. Being a modified plus-size model I have gotten a lot of love. I recently got an email from a girl stating that she saw me on a body positive blog and told me that I inspire her and that my photos have helped her to accept who she is and feel beautiful. I am so thankful for the love and support! I wish to show more people that you can be big, beautiful, modified, healthy, or who ever you identify with AND be loved! I just want each and everyone of you to know that you ARE beautiful. Don’t let anyone ever take that from you.
You can find me and the rest of the photos from the photoshoot at Pinkandinked.tumblr.com!
[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.
submitted by liquifiedbaby:
Huge rant here. It might make no sense at all because I am not a native english speaker.
—-
I’ve been chubby since my childhood. When I turned fifteen my mom and I decided to go to the gym and lose some pounds.
It was fun and I grew stronger and I just loved myself in the beginning.
But it all changed only within the first or second month because I fucking hate gym.
I hate counting time, lifts, I hate lifting heavy things while I have barely opened my eyes. I gave up many times but my mom just kept bothering me about my fatness so I would hate my body enough to go through that torture again.
She kept waking me up early in the morning (I fucking hate waking up at 6 am) and dragged me to that same boring classes every damn day.
I learned to exercise until I feel pain because that meant that my muscles were getting stronger and that my fat was melting away (?), but last year the pain went a little too far.
Long story short, I felt a little pain on my right leg that just wouldn’t stop. I didn’t even bother at first because I “knew” it would go away with the time.
Asked me-vale-madre
Yes, safeness is important - which is why I suggest not thinking about it as “working out” or ending in weight loss - but rather, something to boost your frame of mind, attitude and happiness. Think about what being active does for you mentally rather than physically, etc.
I also failed to mention that I’m a huge advocate for Health at Every Size and encourage anyone struggling with the weight loss/disordered eating cycle of mental instability to check it out. It has been immensely helpful to me in a lot of ways
submitted by thispieceofwork:
I recently got a job teaching high school English, and for that job I needed to get a physical. I stopped working out about six months ago, and this summer I went through a particularly difficult bout of depression, and I’m well aware that I eat my feelings. I drink, I smoke, and I eat like shit, and my body responds. I hadn’t weighed myself in a while, so I was dreading my appointment.
And then I got on the scale and heard the number I’d been avoiding. 285 at 5’8”. It’s the heaviest I’ve ever been. But you know what? My temperature? 98.3 on the dot. My blood pressure? 120/80 EXACTLY. My heart and lungs (surprisingly) are doing just fine.
So this is just a reminder that sure, in some cases being overweight can really affect your health. And sometimes, you’re completely fine regardless of the extra weight. But no matter what, your health is your health and no matter how many rolls or stretch marks you have, no matter the size of your pants or the number on that scale, you are beautiful. And you can take that shit to the bank.
submitted by atheologist:
I understand the desire for other fat people to prove that they can be fat and healthy based on blood work or other typical definitions, but sometimes, as a fat person who does not have “perfect” blood work, it gets hard to listen to.
I’m fat. Small fat, inbetweenie, low-end-of-obese. Whichever. I don’t have perfect blood work. I know that every time I go in for a physical, my doctor will check my cholesterol and it will be high. It’s been borderline or high since I was in college. Might it go down if I chose to dedicate myself to hours of exercise each week and eating “clean”? Maybe. But my father, a runner with a BMI at the low end of “normal” also has high cholesterol. My mother, who is my height and probably 60 lbs. lighter (putting her within the “normal” BMI range as well) has borderline cholesterol numbers.
I don’t have perfect blood work. But it’s not because I’m fat. Health is more than having perfect test results and I hate that I feel ashamed that mine aren’t.
I know it feels vindicating to say “fuck you” to the doctors and relatives and complete strangers who assume that all fat people are unhealthy by whatever definition they choose, but remember that not all of us meet those criteria. It gets tiring to say that yes, my cholesterol is high, and that, yes, I show some symptoms of metabolic disorder (which is probably what caused the weight gain that pushed me from “overweight” to “obese”), but I still consider myself healthy because right now I am fit and active and able to live my life as I want.
submitted by aliencupcake:
I’m fat. I’m a fat girl. Not curvy or chubby, or with-more-to-hold. Fat. I don’t have love humps, I have proper rolls of meat and thunder thighs. And lately, I’ve been getting tired of the crap people are pulling on me. But let me give you an insight:
According to BMI charts (which are as realiable as you all acknowledge by now), I’m obese, at 85kg and 165cm. My fat is mostly stored in my central body area, therefore granting me a apple-type body, and with it, tons of other things:
a much increased chance of getting heart attacks than “normal people”
a much increased chance of developing diabetes than “normal people”
a much increased chance of developing respiratory issues than “normal people”
a much increased chance to have mental disorders than “normal people”
And I could go on, and on and on. All those risks were told me by healthcare professionals, countless times, be it because I decided to be on the birth control pill and needed a check up, be it because I was donating blood, be it whatever.
And it’s always the “We say it because we care” excuse. “It’s because we’re worried about your health, your lifestyle choices! We don’t mind you’re a little curvy, we’re just worried about the repercussions.”
Guess what: I don’t need you to worry about that. I don’t need to listen to your tips on how to lose weight or to my mom’s warnings of “if you don’t get thinner and dress appropriately, people won’t hire you, you know society shouldn’t pay attention to looks but it does”. I certainly don’t need your looks of pity when I pull a face at a shitton of stairs or the condiscending giggle whenever I try to fit my ass through two too-closed parked cars. Neither do I need to listen for the n-th time to my doctor giving me the WATCH THE DIABEETUS speech.
I am aware. In fact, I’m more aware than what you may think, and probably more aware than someone who, unlike me, doesn’t suffer with anxiety disorder, depression and bulimia. I don’t need your half-assed wake-up calls.
I’ve always been an active person - not because of health, but purely because I LIKED being active. I love a good sports session and competition. The same way I take the lift instead of the stairs - because I’ve also always been lazy in what concerns those little daily things. I take the lift because I’m lazy, not because I’m fat and can’t move my ass (and even if I couldn’t, it still would be fine and not your business).
I got my latest blood test results about a week ago. My mother didn’t believe they were mine, and neither did the doctor, at first. Then they thought there had been a mistake. Finally, they accepted them as the actual truth. Why this difficulty to believe?
Because they came out perfect. Literally everything, from cholesterol to glicemia to hormones to blood pressure, everything was perfect. The example of what a perfectly healthy individual blood tests should show. And, therefore, they couldn’t belong to a obese lazy girl.
How triggering is this? How discriminatory is this? Do they even fathom how that made me feel? “These tests are too perfect, can’t be yours, because you’re fat.” “I can’t believe you snatched that hot dude, you’re chubby.” “I can’t believe you won that badminton set, was expecting you to be much slower”. “Nice work on getting a job, people are usually picky with looks, glad you got lucky!”
These aren’t words said out of care or concern. These are words of discrimination and hurt masked in happy disbelief. Thankfully now, I have a ~*signed official*~ paper that proves that no one has any reason to call me out on my not-so-healthy-according-to-you habits.
But the point is - no one ever had.