I just sat down to write a blog and wondered what I should write about.  And it is funny how the universe delivers, because an interesting New York Times article written by Jessica Knoll landed in my inbox.  I didn’t need to look any further. Boy, I was on a roll.

Apologies in advance for what I am about to unleash, but this is my passion and thank you Jessica Knoll for getting it out there too.

A little bit of background to get us started.  Today, we are inundated with information about wellness and health, and how if we pursue optimal health and wellness, especially women, we will attain these amazing results.  And Jessica, in the article, lists some of these results namely, increased energy, lowered inflammation, reduced risks of cancer, great skin, gut and fertility healing and many more “pseudoscientific” outcomes.  In other words, we, especially women, are repeatedly told that the gold star and ultimate goal for us, is to achieve health and wellness.

Simplistically this sounds ethical and correct.  Yes, health and wellness – of course, who wouldn’t want that?

But if you dig a little deeper, and look underneath that message, then what you actually uncover is the hidden truth.

The truth is that what is really being implied is that never mind the glowing skin and everything else, you need to be skinny too.  You need to be thin essentially.  Your size is equated to your health.

Logically, does this make sense?

Have you ever stopped to consider that someone who has a healthy (according to whom?) body weight, might actually have very high cholesterol levels and is really not so healthy, yet is “thin” or in the “ideal” body mass category?

Society has become so moralistic and judgmental in the quest for optimal health, and in doing so is confusing weight for health.

For many cultures, chronic dieting is the norm, it is a style or way of life and in many cases it has become a religion.  Each new fad is adhered to and its followers stick to it in a cult-like fashion.

So where does body wisdom fit in?

Where does that innate sense of knowing that what we were all born with, fit in?  We were all born with the most amazing regulatory system.

When we were hungry, we cried.

We drank the milk that was offered, and when we were satiated, we stopped.

We listened to our internal sense, our body wisdom.

Today, we have lost that ability, that internal knowing, that internal sense.

Instead we have become disembodied, self-attacking, self-rejecting beings locked into a cycle of food restriction in the hunt of health and wellness.

Isn’t it time that we learnt to listen to our body? To return to the pleasure of food, the pleasure of our body.  To accept the wonders of our body, no matter what size or shape?

Honestly, if dieting worked, if that new diet was the answer, would anyone out there be overweight? Would there even be an obesity crisis?