"Healthy" Is Not An Aesthetic

"Weight loss" is an old dogma that I don't subscribe to. A cultural manipulation tool to sell the idea of "beauty" and "happiness" to people who don't "look" the part of a fabricated image created by an industry that makes billions of dollars a year. So much has been spent to make perfectly healthy normal looking bodies seem shameful and wrong, even going the to lengths of only associating a specific aesthetic with health and all other bodies that don't fit this aesthetic as unfit and unhealthy.
This whole cultural notion, where people's happiness & well being depends on losing weight and reaching a standard, such as BMI (an insane measuring tool created by a mathematician decades back who knew nothing about biology) and corporate visual images, is unrealistic and unattainable for the majority of humans.

Weight loss culture preys on people's insecurities and lowers their self esteem in a studied and deliberate way. A lot of people still seem to be subscribing to this old paradigm that I find completely toxic. So many people are trying to "lose weight" who really don't need to be.
Furthermore I spend my time sharing information with clients and people to help them reclaim the power of their natural body and to reintegrate this heavily villainized thing called "fat" as a normal healthy part of the body.

Fat isn't as bad as this culture is obsessed with making it out to be. Fat is nutrition for your brain, joints, skin and thousands of metabolic functions. In yogic & ayurvedic tradition, fat represents nourishment, the feminine, the mother, love, comfort, kindness & softness. Makes me always wonder why this culture is so anti-fat. We've been programmed with all the anti-fat media buzzwords: low fat, fat-free, burn fat, zero body fat, ugly & fat, fatso! So many negative connotations about "fat." Yet, lack of fat is actually driving our culture completely haywire! Now, hear me out, I'm not promoting toxic fats or fat imbalances that lead to disease... but everyone's body has different needs and carries fat differently and for different reasons.

Some people can be perfectly healthy, active and energetic while carrying visible fat on their bodies, these people are still shamed and made to think that a sculpted lean non-fatty look is what represents health and if they don't achieve that, their health can not be validated culturally until they do.
Low body fat and high muscle mass do not equate health! READ THAT AGAIN...
There are many highly unhealthy people with zero body fat, avid gym goers, runway models, weightlifting champions etc. So many muscle toned and sculpted athletes that suffer from disease and health issues.

Repeat after me: HEALTH DOES NOT HAVE AN AESTHETIC... Let that settle in. It's all about bringing our body to a healthy balanced state from within and then that naturally brings excess fat to a more normal level for their particular body composition and constitution and for others it may require they actually increase in body fat, that pill can be hard for many people to swallow.

I would love to see us as a culture steer away from the corporate marketing images of what it is to be human by losing weight and "whipping" yourself "into shape" (who's shape?) & instead of all that, let us teach people how to create powerful physical, emotional and mental health that will lead bodies to a more vital and healthy state no matter what that appears to be. Corporations have been catching on these last few years by allowing body diversity in their marketing and advertising, but the fitness industry is still behind on rectifying this many decade long tirade on fat.
Remember, being healthy, radiant and vibrant can never be represented by a measurement or number. It's way more complex, diverse and holistic than that.
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