I put it all over my art, though the art is never just about that, really.

I have struggled with body-image and weight issues since I first developed an eating disorder at the age of 12. My weight has yo-yo’d since I stopped growing within about 50lbs. Early this summer, I decided to finally put off the college 30 and got heavily into the online world of weight loss. Somewhere along the way, I found fat acceptance, and have since given up dieting and have Linda Bacon’s book on hold at the library.

However, that didn’t happen until I’d already lost over 20lbs. Many people haven’t seen me at all this summer, and I am now dealing with lots of weight-less comments about how much weight I’ve lost, and how “good” and “healthy” I am. These comments now make me extremely uncomfortable. This happened the other day with a coworker, and I tried to diffuse the situation by saying that unfortunately I realized that for me, weight loss actually came with a lot of unhealthy behaviors (and muscle loss), and I don’t diet any more and try to practice health at every size instead. It resulted in colossal awkwardness and blank stares. Maybe I just need to get used to this, and I admit I might be part of the problem bc I have in the past been guilty of “diet talk” so people might think I appreciate the comments. But in some situations, it just seems too awkward to try and explain things to someone who is trying to compliment me. (And in the case of my mother, it’s just a horrible can of worms to try and explain that to “keep going in the right direction”, as she keeps telling me to, probably more accurately means up as opposed to down.)

I do speak up when I hear blatant fat phobia, and I do lots of linking to FA articles and blogs, but I’m still struggling to balance “speaking up” with not offending, even alienating, my friends and coworkers. Does anyone have any pointers about what I should say in these situations, specifically?

Among all the things that we can do to be a body positive advocate, writing articles and commenting is one of the best ways (IMHO). I’m not too much on doing obnoxious things to bring attention to a cause ( I will leave that to the Mimi Roth’s of the world), but I’m all for open, honest, and passionate dialogue.

I can only imagine how many are just sitting on the sidelines reading this and I’m sure they are helped.

Thanks for the post Mo Pie!