Once more for Revolution.

It has been said that a definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

Says the first line of this amazing article by sociologist Pattie Thomas. Pattie points out that people repeatedly do diets and expect that this time it will change. She further points out the diet industry is a $58 Billion dollar entity where we always blame the dieter and never the diet, and that the war on obesity is more of a moral panic than about health. I get many comments on this blog from people who think they are holier than thou because they are thin. 

Fat activists are often accused of being paranoid when they blame the weight loss industry for the panic over the "obesity epidemic" but $58 billion is a lot to be paranoid about. Especially when the diets tend to fail in the long run. (See Archives of Internal medicine, Nutrition Journal, and JAMA to name a few.) 

Thick skulled naysayers often think my call to end or actively trying to lose weight means that I am lazy, jealous, stupid, and encourage everyone to eat McDonalds for every meal. They Ignore my call to embrace HAES and eat healthy without worry about weight. Sure there are some people who do lose weight and keep it off longer than five years but they are the exception not the rule (I'm thinking that some people naturally lose weight after when they give up dieting, eat healthy and move. Or their goal weight isn't a "thin" number. Or they become OCD about dieting and count everything while ignoring hunger cues.) 

Last week was Healthy Weight Week. Make your healthy weight be whatever you are when you eat normally (i.e. follow your own hunger cues) and have fun movement. If you need help learning intitative eating, try HAES by Linda Bacon or Overcoming Overeating.

And to find fun movement try out different things and see what you enjoy. I just found out last weekend I love to snow shoe.