HAES: Health At Every Size. It’s an approach to health that’s growing, no pun intended. It takes the focus off weight and Body Mass Index (BMI) and puts it on being as healthy as you can.
HAES is about living a life rather than existing on deprivation based on someone else’s version of an ideal. Weight has ruled my life for as long as I can remember. In order to maintain my “ideal weight” I literally have to subsist on carrot sticks and fat-free cheese. Is that a life? The chart says I’m about 20 lbs heavier than my ideal BMI. Is the struggle worth it? I don’t overeat per se. I snack sometimes. I don’t binge. I’m pretty average, I’d wager. Unless it’s a salad, nine times out of ten I come home with a doggie bag from a restaurant meal. I understand portion control. I could definitely use more exercise and that’s where I’m trying to put my focus while eating a nutritious and healthy diet.
Some experts are afraid that if society became more accepting of all sizes and shapes some people would take it as a license to indulge and become obese. However, a few studies have already shown that it has the opposite effect. Freed from the shackles of trying to attain an unrealistic ideal, people focused on exercise and other healthy pursuits. The National Post reports several eating disorder clinics have adopted the HAES approach to healing their clients. But it’s going to be an uphill fight.
I wrote about conspiracy theories last week: well here’s one that I know exists. The conspiracy to try to make us all believe we need to be improved, that we don’t measure up. Whether it’s body image, clothing size, weight or just looks, everything from magazines to the multi-billion dollar diet industry revolves around us not feeling like we’re up to par. And the solution is just as close as a $5 magazine or a $500. weight loss program that makes us feel punished while we’re reading it or following it.
I know that a muffin top over my waistband doesn’t feel right and buying a bigger size of pants isn’t the solution. But neither is it healthy to feel unworthy, the way I spent a large part of my younger years off and on, because I didn’t have a tiny waist. Is HAES the solution? Greater minds than mine will decide that. But anything that builds rather than tears down self-confidence can’t be a bad thing…can it?
This is going to sound like I’m making excuses, but here goes: you and I – and countless others of our spouses, partners, friends and co-workers in overnight/morning jobs – live unnatural lives. We rise long before the birds, the sun and almost everyone else, and we are perpetually either catching up on our sleep or wishing to God we could squeeze some in. It’s a medical fact that sleep deprived people are usually overweight; our metabolisms don’t work properly and rarely do we have the energy to exercise! Just today a co-worker told me his/her doctor admonished him/her after he/she came down with yet another serious infection with these words: “You don’t get enough rest.” Give the man a Nobel. These hours are killers. And to anyone who thinks morning radio equals low golf handicaps and a leisurely lifestyle, tell them that the hours are deadly. There’s a reason we (often) get more vacation time than other shift workers. We need it, or we end up chronically ill and completely off-kilter. At least we have a reason not to be as fit and healthy as we wish we could be – HAES or not. Thought I’d pitch in my two cents before trying to catch forty winks. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
You are so right. But why do I feel like I’m giving up or making excuses when I remember problems caused by the hours? Even with a nap, the sleep is never the same. 🙂