Body attack – these two words tell me very strongly what is wrong with our culture today. When it is seem as okay to name a workout course after the act of hating your body so much that you wish to attack it, everything is wrong forever. Your body is your constant companion, your conjoined twin, the one you can never escape from – why would you want to attack it? Wouldn’t you want to cherish it and treat it well and have a non-stop love in?!

Having said that, I don’t see anything wrong with exercising or working out as one sees fit. I myself have recently taking up dancing like nobody is watching (even when both husband and daughter are watching, and the latter is laughing). I fling myself around, I jump, I spin, and I thank my body for the fun we have together. When the arches of my feet started cramping up badly yesterday, I did the sane thing – I wrapped them up and treated them kindly, avoiding high-impact fun for a bit. And while I think they are probably okay today, I will still take it easy and treat them well – they are a part of me, and I love them. I don’t want to beat them up because someone says they should be smaller/thinner/more fashionable. I want them to have fun with me, to be healthy and capable of continuing to do wonderful things.

Perhaps I am getting too upset by something that is meant differently. Maybe me seeing attack is just being all cookoo crazy lady with no sense of humor or ‘fun’… but I think not. I’d rather be socially unacceptable than give into a culture that wants me to go for broke attacking myself when there is no need. My BMI might claim me overweight, after all, but nothing stopping health agencies from pulling another 1998 and making even more people ‘fat’. And frankly, I might be ‘fat’, but that doesn’t change the fact I’m the healthiest I have ever been in my life. I refuse to be told that a few extra pounds sticking around means that I’m about to suddenly drop dead, or scare me into wanting to attack myself so that I too can be thin; after all, speaking from experience, thin emphatically does not equal healthy. It means that you’re even less likely to get help when you ARE unwell – take that one right from me.

Of course, this’ll probably fall by the way side; people still assume that I’m thinner than I actually am, and therefore, are a null voice in body acceptance. So be it, but for me – I am proud to help promote Health at Every Size. I’ll eat right because I like it, I’ll move because I like to, but attack my body? Never. I hope you won’t either – love yourself, love your conjoined twin, and always remember – you are the master of your own pants, not Weight Watchers, not L.A. Fitness, not your nagging family members.

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