Weight Wellness according to Health at Every Size

 Traveling back from Boston yesterday I sat next to a woman who commented on my weight wellness snacking choices – almonds, dried fruit and beef jerky.  She starting talking to me about (HAES), Health At Every Size, a radical new approach to getting healthier precisely by not focusing on your weight.  As I listened to her comments, I was pleased to hear the similar principals aligning with our weight wellness  platform.

The basic premise is that healthy behaviors can improve your life regardless of whether they result in weight loss.  People abandon diets in favor of “intuitive eating,” which means paying close attention to what you crave and how the foods you eat make you feel, as well as gradually learning to distinguish emotional hunger from the physical kind.  For exercise, identify any activity that provides enough fun that you don’t need to force yourself to do it regularly.  What I really like is HAES also demands that you love and respect your body just as it is, whatever size.  At its core, it is about stripping away rigid ideas and stereotypes about food and fitness.

I think this fundamental weight wellness shift to body and mind is long overdue.  Switch the focus from weight to health.  It’s time to stop the single-minded focus on diets; listen to your body, enjoy your food, get out and walk, swim or play kick ball with your kids! Besides, most people who truly focus on weight wellness and doing some form of exercise will find that the weight eventually takes care of itself.  One of the greatest contributing factors to a healthy body and mind is laughter.  Live life well and to the fullest!