YOU ARE FAT! ...yeah, and so what?

Ad to fight child obesity in Georgia.
Is this helping the solve the cause of the issue,
or only  ridiculing it, making it even more difficult to get to the core of the issue.

This ad left me feeling slightly discombobulated, to say the least. 

My initial reaction was, "how dare they!... That is just tasteless!"

Admittedly, working with body image issues and eating disorders, as one of my specialties, by balancing those brain chemistry imbalances that are at play in combination with working with behavioral change modification, I am quite opinionated when it comes to ed triggers and body image issues presented in society.

Even though above ad is clearly crossing the line for good taste by inspiring other kids to make fun of the fat kids in school - I think it would be refreshing, if we could all get to a point where fat is just that: fat. You are fat. Yes. And so what - nothing to cry about. I am not telling you, you are worthless or stupid or unloveable - far, far from it!

Love vs. Lust.

We seem to forget - consciously or not - that being fat has nothing to do with your qualities as a human being or how lovable you are. You are very lovable! Never forget that the size of your derriere has NOTHING to do with how much someone loves you! Don't fall victim to not being able to decipher the difference between lust and love. Everyone can be lusted upon - only few are those who you will connect with on a soul level and love. You are selling yourself short if you aim for lust instead of love. Lust cannot replace love. Ever.

Yeah, you have fat. And I have kidney disease. Same, same but different.

I think a lot of us, when we overreact to hearing the words "you are fat", don't realize that sure enough, this may be said as an insultment, but in the end - it really isn't. It is just like saying "you have kidney disease". That is, if our society wasn't completely brainwashed by unrealistic ideals and a tendency to connect the bulge on your waistline with self-worth.

Health care professionals need to get the big picture of how we are contributing to poor body image and unconsciously sending a message to our clients of connecting bodyfat% with their worth as human beings. 

As a health practitioner or parent it is NOT OK to ignore the fact that someone is fat. 

And it is NOT OK to ridicule it either, of course. 

It is never OK to ridicule, whatever the matter is, so that's really not the point of this post.

Facts are facts.

If someone is overweight, we need to explain this to them in a neutral manner: that this will in fact kill them. And that's a fact. Curves are hot and scrawny is not. But come on now - we all now the difference between having curves and being obese. Obesity is a disease that needs to be targeted as such. Not a freakin' mental illness or taboo. 

Especially professionals working in the eating disorder field get terrified of ever mentioning to a client anything about too much weight, as they fear this could trigger relapse.

But guess what: clients are not stupid. And they are not going to trust someone who tells them that every shape and size is great. Every single one of us knows what size we feel most comfortable being, and we need to connect this with what is realistic considering the demands of our lifestyle.

Nervous Nellies

Messed up and sick body images that can only be achieved by starving yourself on a less than 1500 kcal diet is not something that anyone should aim for. That is where we as health care practitioners must work with the client on a wake-up call. If you are not an athlete or paid to starve yourself like every runway model these days do (often suppressing hunger pans with coke or "getting off" on starving themselves due to genetically elevated serotonin levels, which I have written about in another post on this blog), then don't go there. You cannot lead a healthy and balanced life with a bodyfat% in the single digits or a BMI below 18 (and don't forget the BMI was developed to also cater for small-framed asians - so if you are a of a big-boned caucasian descent, BMI of below 20 is probably not happening without a struggle for it). No - those people who claim that they are naturally that scrawny, often use drugs to mess with their body's set-point - and that includes cigarettes. 

Having too little fat makes you a nervous nelly. Your nerves need a bit of fat on your derriere to be cool and collected. And that's a fact.

But in the end: fat is just that - fat. It's like your doctor telling you, you have kidney disease. And hey, you need to do something about it. Or else, it sure as heck will do something about you.

Reframing our minds to accept the fact that fat is just fat and NOTHING else value based, is probably one of the biggest paradoxical obstacles right now in the health field. This is key to developing a streamlined approach to how we attack this epidemic in a tasteful and neutral manner. Without sweet lies that no-one really believes in, and that only makes for a distrustful relationship between health care practitioner and client.