In the obsession with thinness that grips our culture today, many women -- and it is mostly women -- are making their bodies their life's work, keeping themselves undernourished to stay thin, living like starving people, with all that implies. As they and others eat in increasingly disturbed ways, problems like overweight, eating disorders, and dysfunctional eating are increasing at alarming rates, and they are severely affecting children at younger and younger ages.
   We can do better than this. We can live up to our rich potential as strong, capable, loving, generous individuals, and inspire others to do the same.
   A new movement is emerging to deal with the weight and eating crisis in better ways. Leaders in this movement say it is time to throw out the old, failed weight-centered model and move on to a new health-centered paradigm. This is a movement that is coming into its own. Nutrition and health leaders are saying that people eveywhere are ready for a "Health at Any Size Revolution."
   It's time to move ahead with vision and direction, to focus on positive ways to living a healthy, happy lifestyle. This is an urgent challenge for America and countries around the world.
   The goal of this new approach is to promote health and well-being, wellness and wholeness, for everyone of every size. It encourages people to eat well, live actively, and feel good about themselves and others. Following these four guiding principles will help us make this shift.

Eat well
   Eating well encompasses both healthy nutrition and normal eating patterns. Choosing foods from all of the food groups -- fruits and vegetables, whole grains, meats and alternates, and milk products -- ensures a balance of the many nutrients needed for health, energy, and our protective immune system. Eating well means enjoying many different foods and a variety of fruits and vegetables. When we eat moderately, we avoid the disruption of extremes, neither overeating nor undereating, neither overindulging in high-fat, high-sugar foods nor fearing to eat these foods, which may be favorites and can certainly fit into a healthy diet.
   Normal eating means eating at regular times and responding to internal signals of hunger and satiety. If people would do this, we could prevent many of the eating and weight problems that plague our culture today. Normal eating enhances our feelings of well-being, promotes clear thinking and mood stability, and promotes stable weight. This appears to be the healthiest course for people of all sizes.

Live actively
   Being active is the natural way for people to live, so enjoy physical activity, without being obsessive about it. Take pleasure in being active in your own way, every day, as a normal part of your life. Make fitness a family activity. Reject the notion that losing weight is a major reason to be active. It's not; engaging in regular activity is important for many reasons, only one of which is its beneficial effect on weight. Live actively because it's a great and wonderful way to live.

Feel good about yourself
   You're okay just as you are, so respect, accept, and trust yourself. You are unique, with your own special talents and traits, and this is a marvellous thing. If you've been waiting for thinness to get on with life, don't wait any longer -- do it now. Free yourself to move on with health-centered changes that improve your life. Feel good about yourself, avoid negatives, and keep up the positive self-talk.

Feel good about others
   Respect and accept the people around you, and appreciate their size diversity. Be tolerant and non-judgmental of appearances. Rise above prejudice, and insist on zero tolerance for size bias in the school, workplace, community, and home. Each person needs acceptance and deserves a sense of well-being, peace, and tranquility. In the family, support those you love by making it unconditional: "I love you no matter what."

Shifting to Health at Any Size
   When we follow these guidelines, we begin the shift from a focus on thinness to being healthy at the weight we are, physically and mentally. We'll put these issues into a healthy perspective, and prevent eating and weight problems for ourselves and our families.
   Some people will lose weight when they make this shift to a healthier lifestyle. Others will stay the same weight, but feel lighter once they lift the load of guilt and find self-acceptance. Still others who have kept themselves at an unnaturally low weight may gain a few pounds. Note that if you -- or someone you know -- are staying below your natural weight by being undernourished, in a starvation mode, you are sacrificing your unique self, your personality, and your human potential. This is paying too high a price.
   Instead of struggling against our natural set-point, we can recognize and work with it. A change in atittude toward acceptance can be very freeing. It liberates us from "waiting to be thin" and helps us move on with health-centered changes that make life infinitely better. We need to throw out our reliance on the scale and the numbers on that scale.
   In this way, we can get on with our lives. Weight will tend to be stable as we keep regular eating and activity patterns, feel empowered, and stop weight cycling or waiting to be thin. The new paradigm recognizes that everyone, at every size, deserves a high quality of life, a sense of well-being, self-acceptance, and self-respect. It includes an appreciation of size diversity and tolerance and respect for others, whatever their size or shape.

A better vision
   Working together and supported by a health-centered policy that deals with size, weight, and eating issues, we can bring about the healthy change needed for our future.
   As we search individually for answers, it is helpful to keep a balanced perspective. We need to remember that weight, eating, and health are only part of what makes life worthwhile. Wellness and wholeness are not about attaining perfect health or longevity as ends in themselves but about improving our quality of life, so we can each accompish what we want and live well emotionally, intellectually, physically, socially, and spiritually.
   All can join in and provide leaderhip in this health at any size revolution. This is a cause that allows us and those we love to enjoy life as it was meant to be.
   The poster in my dentist's office says, "One person can make a difference -- two or three can make a miracle!" I really believe this, that you and I can make a difference, all alone, where we are -- and that working together, we can make a miracle! (Healthy Weight Journal 200:14;1 (January/February); 15.

Healthy Weight Network 
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