Fat, Happy and HAES.

A study at Warwick university indicated that you remain happy in your old age regardless of your weight. 

The researchers also found that being overweight or obese did not have a significant impact on mental well-being levels, with people with a BMI of more than 30 showing similar mental quality of life levels to those considered to be a healthy weight...

...We suggest that this could be due to better coping abilities, an interpretation supported by previous research showing older people tend to have internal mechanisms to deal better with hardship or negative circumstances than those who are younger.

The good news is being fat or thin in your old age should not effect your well being. As I grow older conformist appearence doesn't bother me as much. I no longer care if I'm fat, have cooties, sport a stylish haircut or wear this season's fashion.  Coming to terms with being fat has given me a tremedous sense of wellbeing.  I think as you get older, stigma about your appearence doesn't effect you as much. Such as the scene in Fried Green Tomatoes where Kathy Bates' character hits the car of the younger and "prettier" girls who had previously mocked her due to her middle age.

Speaking of feeling good, Yahoo Shine has an article about health rules you can break including one surprising HAES rule. One which I have mentioned here about a zillion times (okay, maybe only a hundred million). Eat healthy and move and let your body decide what your normal weight is. 

(Joanne) Ikeda advises her patients to stop obsessing over their BMI, eat a nutritious diet, and log 150 minutes of exercise per week. "A healthy lifestyle results in a healthy weight." 

A New York Times blog points out the importance of exercise for disease prevention. 

To avoid that fate, he says, keep moving, even if in small doses. "When I'm really busy, I make sure to get up and walk around the office or jog in place every hour or so," he says. Wear a pedometer if it will nudge you to move more. "You don't have to run marathons," he says. "But the evidence is clear that you do need to move."

I've mentioned several times on this blog, the importance of movement and that you move to the best of your abilties (which may mean anything from a short walk around the block to running a marathon.)

So eat right, exercise and be happy!