Health at Every Size

When I was doing some interest searching on LJ, I was hapy to find there's a "Health at Every Size" community. Right now, it appears to be one person mostly posting articles about obesity research and health and fitness advice for larger people. I hope the community grows. The principles of the "Health at Every Size" philosophy are:

1) Accepting and respecting the diversity of body shapes and sizes.

2) Recognizing that health and well-being are multi-dimensional and that they include physical, social, spiritual, occupational, emotional, and intellectual aspects.

3) Promoting all aspects of health and well-being for people of all sizes.

4) Promoting eating in a manner which balances individual nutritional needs, hunger, satiety, appetite, and pleasure.

5) Promoting individually appropriate, enjoyable, life-enhancing physical activity, rather than exercise that is focused on a goal of weight loss.

This is very close to my own health and fitness philosophy. I believe that taking the focus OFF the numbers on the scale and focusing ON eating right and getting exercise no matter what size you're at is the way to go.

I think that focusing on weight-loss as a goal, rather than as a by-product of a healthy lifestyle, is extremely mentally and physically unhealthy.

( and this is why )