Body Positive New Year’s REVOLUTIONS
By Amy Pence-Brown
A major step in my own body positive journey was relinquishing the control that New Year’s Resolutions had over me. They were often filled with shame – promising to make changes to “better myself,” specifically my body, in some way that felt forced upon me by society instead of some way I personally wanted to grow. For years, the top three resolutions I made were exercise more, eat healthier, and lose weight.
I finally realized that it wasn’t me that needed fixing or changing, it was society. So I decided to take that on, one little New Year’s Resolution – scratch that – Revolution at a time. I already had an extraordinary life and a body I was comfortable with that allowed me to move through my days doing the things I loved. January marks new beginnings – a fresh calendar with an empty slate to fill with living life in extraordinary ways. Here are a few of my favorite shame-free body positive suggestions:
-Buy a fun piece of clothing in a style that pushes you outside your comfort zone, with no regard for the size on the tag.
-Find a new cookbook and learn to make all (or several) recipes out of it.
-Take your bathroom scale to the thrift store. (Better yet, take it to the backyard and smash it with a hammer!)
-Revamp your media feed. Delete the weight loss and diet pages you follow and replace them with fierce fabulous fatties on Instagram and Facebook pages from body positive resources (like FabUplus!).
– Add a body positive book (or three) to your reading list this year, like Dr. Linda Bacon’s Health At Every Size, Brittany Gibbon’s Fat Girl Walking, or Serai Walker’s Dietland.
Remember, New Year Revolutions don’t have to be grand proclamations. They can be tiny, beautiful and personal things that mean something to you. We can all make a difference in our world, for ourselves and for others.