Fat Acceptance: How to Challenge Negative Attitudes and Stereotypes About Fat People

• January 1, 2020
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One insight I received after losing about 110 pounds (332lbs to 220lbs) is the constant thought “I’m fat”…that society drilled into me…was not true.

I looked at my much smaller body and wondered where the weight had gone. Did it evaporate? Was is still physical matter somehow? Could I go and visit it somewhere?

I also realized that no matter how big or small I was, I was not my body…because if I was my body then a part of me would leave when I lost weight. I didn’t feel like any part of me left though when I lost weight, so I could not be my body.

A more accurate statement is…I am a steward of a physical body that is fat. If I say I’m fat – then I merge me with my physical body. While they are connected, they aren’t the same.

I have been placed with the responsibility to be a steward of my physical body. Some people do a better job of being a steward than others, but “I’m fat” cannot be accurate because it would mean the “I am” is my physical body and that’s not true.

It’s similar to the insight Eckhart Tolle had when he had the thought “I can’t live with myself”. This was the moment things began to change for him, because he realized that if he couldn’t live with himself, there had to be two separate entities for that thought to be accurate.

I’m stupid, I’m scared, I’m confident, I’m sleepy are also technically inaccurate too. I’m stupid indicates you are your intelligence. I’m confident and I’m sleepy indicate you are your state of being. All not true.

You might say “hey…I’m not anything specifically…I’m a combination of many things” or “I am all those things in totality”.

Let’s say you have a person named Bill. People think of Bill as a tall, fat, loud, annoying human being. But is he really? or are these just labels we’ve used to identify him in our minds.

Just something to think about on this New Years Day…and know that all these labels are just that…labels – not who you truly are. And hey, while you’re not your body, you ARE a steward of your body, and it’s in everyone’s best interest that you take the best care of it you can.