"I feel fat."
We hear this all the time. Sometimes it's thrown into conversation. Sometimes it manifests in our actions. Sometimes, we body shame others to try to avoid this horrible "feeling." It's the insecurity the advertising industry preys upon and what fuels diet culture. "Being fat" is made out to be one of the worst things you can be, so consequently, "feeling fat" is a negative, shameful experience for most. But there's one problem: fat is not a feeling.
I was initially going to write up a 500-or-so word piece on fat talk in our culture. But then I found this video and decided to let it speak for me (and save you a rant). Buzzfeed released this video on one woman's journey that lead her to debunk the "feeling of fat". Check it out:
When I feel ‘fat,’ I know that means I'm feeling something else and it’s worth figuring out what that is.
Time after time we sacrifice a healthy mind to chase after a perfect/better/skinnier body. But it's funny because the shape of our bodies have literally nothing to do with our worth. Being thin is no one's life calling and food is not something to be earned. You don't need to work out or eat healthy for a week or what-have-you to deserve to eat. You deserve to eat simply because you meet the one criteria for having worth: you're a human being.
When we stop saying "I feel fat" and start labeling what we really feel, we can experience freedom from diet culture. We can move forward in recovery. We can truly appreciate our uniqueness that we were created to embrace. Together, let's empower one another to cultivate self-love and body positivity.
