Fat and fit!

One of the comments I often get from men and "skinny" women is that, by pushing a "love your body at any size" mantra, I'm encouraging women to reject reasonable health goals and instead embrace a destructive lifestyle.

This is not at all the case, and I wish to make that clear at the outset.

Here's the deal: You are beautiful at any size.  Tall, short, fat, skinny, curvy, straight, whatever you are, you deserve all the love and respect in the world.  You also deserve to live a long and happy life, and that means you need to be healthy.

That being said, can you be healthy and fat?

A burgeoning amount of research says yes, at least to an extent.  According to such significant sources as Time Magazine and the New York Times, more and more researchers are discovering that as long as you're eating well, exercising regularly, and all of your vital statistics (blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose levels, etc.) are considered within healthy limits, there is no reason you should be stressing about carrying a few extra pounds.

When I was in high school, I weighed over 200 pounds, a significant amount on my 5'4" frame.  I was so out of shape that even walking long distances was difficult.  My feet hurt all the time from carrying so much excess weight.  I fueled my body with junk food and I felt horrible.

Then in my senior year I lost 30 pounds.  I started eating an organic, vegetarian diet based in whole foods.  I made exercise a priority.  I even trained for and completed a triathlon to prove to myself what my body could now achieve.

Then in college I went through a dark period (fueled by being surrounded by body-obsessed girls and eating disorders galore) where I dropped another 10 pounds by starving myself.  I stopped exercising and started eating junk foods again.  I again felt horrible and eventually gained the weight back due to binge eating.

The moral of the story is this: I was not healthy at my heaviest weight and I was not healthy at my lightest.  The place I found serenity was somewhere in between, at a place where I was (and still am) happy with the way my body feels and the way it serves me.  It is my goal to keep my body in a place that I can do whatever I want to: triathlons, backpacking journeys, bike trips, anything and everything that catches my eye.

Here's my point:  I'm considered overweight for my height, but I'm in much better shape than the vast majority of my "skinny" friends.  The BMI chart is not the be-all and end-all of health concerns, but neither should you throw caution to the wind and decide that loving your body is enough to keep it running.

So yes, long story short, I believe that, regardless of what you weigh or what size you wear, you deserve to love your body and recognize all the incredible things it allows you to do.  But in the same spirit of living your life to the fullest, I also believe that living an unhealthy lifestyle is a waste of all the incredible opportunities you've been given.  So while you enjoy never needing to diet again, keep in mind that a little more exercise and a little less junk food never hurt anybody.  In fact, it will probably lead to a much longer and more fulfilling life in the body that you are now learning to love! #