Fat Acceptance Quote for Parents and Teachers

August 11, 2010

Fat Acceptance Quote for Parents and Teachers

If you exercise as “punishment” for weighing too much, how can you learn to enjoy being active? If you eat salads only as a way to change the body you hate, how will you enjoy the wonderful tastes of fresh vegetables?

Besides, if hating one’s body effectively motivated change, do you really think there would be many heavy people in the world?

Accepting yourself as you are today doesn’t mean giving up. It means learning to live in the present with the body you have. It means facing and acknowledging reality.

— Linda Bacon, PhD, in Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth about Your Weight.

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Books, Exercise, fat acceptance, HAES, quotes

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Living 400lbs

I blog about what it’s like to be live life at about 400lbs. :)

19 responses to “Fat Acceptance Quote for Parents and Teachers”

Heidi

August 11, 2010 at 9:06 am

This is a GREAT quote and SO true!!! Thanks so much for sharing! I’ll probably copy it to my own blog.

I’m a new reader of your blog – it’s wonderful. I am a big girl myself and I can’t believe I haven’t stumbled upon it before!

I actually found it by researching what kind of tennis shoes to buy for our upcoming trip to Disney World where I am sure my feet are going to fall off from all the walking.

Thanks for being so open and honest! ☺♥

Reply
1. Living 400lbs
  
  August 11, 2010 at 10:22 am
  
  You’re welcome. BTW, I wrote about my trip to Disney World here and we had a discussion of walking shoes here ;)
  
  Reply
  1. Heidi
    
    August 11, 2010 at 10:57 am
    
    Ooh thanks! That was exactly what I was looking for!!! I read about your trip to Disney World. I need to build up my walking ability but I gotta get some shoes first. I’m going to order some tomorrow and get on it as soon as they come in! I wasn’t as big as I am now the last time we went and it was pretty hellish…so I can only imagine how it’s gonna be this time!
    
    Reply
    1. Kate
      
      August 11, 2010 at 2:37 pm
      
      I’m jumping in to talk about walking shoes. I used to have really bad pain in my feet from walking and I did a bunch of research on what kind of shoes to buy and how to walk, and the advice was spot on for me. I’m going to boil it down to just a few bits of advice.
      
      First, buy a running shoe, not a walking shoe. You want a shoe that’s really bendy in the sole so the shoe moves with your foot and you aren’t just slamming your foot down on the pavement with every step. If you really look at a walking shoe and a running shoe together, you’ll totally see what I mean.
      
      Secondly, think about how your walk for a few days. Make sure your steps are pretty full heel to toe so that again, you won’t be just flopping your foot down as you walk. If you are really careful for a couple days, the motion becomes second nature.
      
      I very quickly stopped having foot pain following this advice, but your mileage my vary.
      
      Have fun at Disney World!
      
      Reply
CTJen

August 11, 2010 at 10:13 am

I love this quote. I posted it to my tumblr with a link back to you. Thanks for making my day! :-)

Reply
1. Living 400lbs
  
  August 11, 2010 at 10:22 am
  
  You’re welcome! Thanks for the link! :)
  
  Reply
Kelly

August 11, 2010 at 12:01 pm

My mom is a “virtuous” food person (eats or doesn’t eat things for weight loss). I swear it kept me hating food for so long. I am only just now starting to eat foods without judging them for nutrition etc etc and feeling bad or good about it all. It sucks.

Good quote – thank you for posting it!

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Kate

August 11, 2010 at 2:39 pm

I am so in love with this quote! I am still trying to learn to move for movement’s sake. I like to move, I feel better when I move, but the lifting weights for the purpose of feeling better and getting stronger and not for weight loss still feels so foreign, but it’s getting better every day.

Thanks so much for your blog!

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Novathecat

August 11, 2010 at 3:46 pm

Not to mention that exercise itself is used as punishment. “Drop and give me 20.” “Just for that, run 50 laps.”

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notblueatall

August 11, 2010 at 3:46 pm

Ahhh! Long live Linda Bacon!

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Anna

August 11, 2010 at 5:54 pm

EXACTLY. Exercise as punishment for eating and salads as a replacement for food resulted in me spending years using food as my way of “Rebellion” as a teenager.

Now about 70% of my diet is vegetables, and I work out every day because I LOVE IT.

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ivan

August 11, 2010 at 7:02 pm

mmmmmmmmmmm, Bacon

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Dana

August 12, 2010 at 1:29 pm

Hi – I wasn’t sure how to contact you but maybe this will work. I’m looking for a blog that is user-submitted photos and artwork of fat men. I think it was a livejournal, and I thought I found it through you. I want to send it to my brother who is fat but just starting the journey of self-acceptance. The photos and artwork are generally really positive, and I wish I could find it!!! Can anyone help me?

Reply
1. Living 400lbs
  
  August 12, 2010 at 1:50 pm
  
  Hi Dana – I think you mean http://men-in-full.livejournal.com/, which is also on one of the fat feeds (or used to be, at least ;)
  
  Reply
sleepydumpling

August 14, 2010 at 9:27 pm

Linda Bacon is just a wealth of fantastic material is she not?

Reply
1. Linda Bacon
  
  August 16, 2010 at 6:58 am
  
  Thanks to both of you for the kind mentions. I’m trying to make the HAES message more accessible to everyone. My book, Health at Every Size, is of course one resource (www.HAESbook.com). And there are also plenty of free resources that I’ve made available as well: http://www.lindabacon.org/HAESbook/excerpts.html.
  
  Great stuff on this blog!
  
  Linda
  
  Reply
  1. sleepydumpling
    
    August 16, 2010 at 6:18 pm
    
    Linda I’m a librarian and I have made sure we have copies in our collection. Particularly as we have a myriad of books about how to lose fat in 5 minutes and other malarkey.
    
    Keep doin’ what you do!
    
    Reply
  2. Living 400lbs
    
    August 17, 2010 at 10:42 pm
    
    Thanks Linda. FYI, there are links to your site under healthcare resources too :)
    
    Reply
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August 31, 2010 at 6:55 am

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