Weight loss for pre-empty nester women who don't like working out
Your health depends on avoiding these two extremes.
There are two camps in the health culture that you want to avoid, in my personal experience and observation. These two camps are: body positivity and “bikini ready in 3 weeks”.
Both are extreme and dangerous.
While body positivity is great in theory, and I personally have been on a journey myself to lean more in this camp, there is a danger when you take it to the extreme.
What people who crusade for body positivity don’t tell you is that being overweight and obese is dangerous as well as physically uncomfortable. Diabetes, risk of stroke, heart attack, and other diseases are greater when you are overweight and obese. It’s a fact.
Not only is it dangerous, it is also uncomfortable. Body chafing when you walk, not being able to fit comfortably into booths at restaurants or comfortably on the airplane, and lacking energy for daily tasks are just a few of the very real issues for many in the body positivity camp. But they don’t talk about that part. To me, it’s almost like a secret they are keeping.
The other extreme is “bikini ready in 3 weeks” which, in my opinion, is equally dangerous. Extreme dieting is unhealthy for your body. It messes up your metabolism, damages your muscle composition, can damage your organs and wreak havoc on your hormones.
Not to mention, those who we see in bikinis ads typically have been airbrushed and are often undernourished. It is an unhealthy and unrealistic ideal that will leave you perpetually dissatisfied. Most bodies will never look like what you see in those ads no matter how hard you try.
So, where should you land within these two extremes?
In my own personal journey, I have found:
You can still love your body and want to lose weight.
You don’t have to be in either extreme but can land safely in the middle of both camps.
Loving your body where it is today for how beautifully it has served you and how perfectly it was created while wanting to be healthier in order to fight off disease and enjoy your life to the fullest is known as health esteem.
I was introduced to this approach in the last couple of years by BODi. Formerly Beachbody, the company has historically been in the “3 weeks to a bikini body” camp. Realizing that it is an unhealthy approach but not wanting to shift the pendulum all the way to the body positivity camp, they created the concept of health esteem.
Where in the two camps do you land today? If you are wanting to make a shift, I’d love to help! Email me and let's work together to customize a sustainable plan for you.
