“A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.” ― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women
Seeing this quote today had me thinking about "Health versus Thinness" and "Dieting vs Healthy Eating". So many American women think Health and Thinness are the same thing but they're NOT. Eating for your best health is a very different process than dieting for thinness. Having a daily focus on dieting and hunger, control and food can make one quietly mad and politically pliant as author Naomi Wolff points out in her quote.
What can we do as women to retrain our focus on the higher prize? The prize being Physical and Mental Health. What can we do to move toward our best self while fighting the powers that be?
First step - Examine what gets you to your best health. Looking at scientific studies instead of fashion magazines, will reveal that movement, specifically 30 minutes or so per day of simply walking will get the healthiest results regardless of what you eat. (You can do other activities too but overdoing exercise can lead to a lower cost-benefit ratio. The highest 'bang for your buck 'as they say is the first 30 minutes and after that, the chances of injury begin to rise and the benefit goes down. )
Second step - What you eat can be important too, eating whole foods that meet your daily requirements would be a good start, embarking on a program that physically is too taxing on the body and a diet that leaves one defeated, hungry and overly focused on food will feed that inkling of madness that pushes the self away from mental wellness.
Third step- Trust your deeper instincts, maybe there is a good reason that diets don't work for you. Diets may not work on you because you are strong and not easily swayed by a culture that is looking for obedience. - MF
If you wanted to know how I did it, and how I intend on maintaining my current weight, then these 50 weight loss tips are for you. Dieting Demystified
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