Health Pros: Stop Using “Healthy” As Code For “Thin”
At it’s best, diet culture exercise can ruin your mood and make you feel self conscious. At it’s worst, it encourages disordered eating, exercise abuse, and can have a profoundly negative impact on both your mental and physical health.
Quotes like “no excuses!” and “never miss a Monday” are pithy may initially motivate you to work through fatigue, but at what cost? Plus, shame based motivation can only last so long, and ultimately having weight loss as your motivation to work out is the quickest way to burn out on fitness. I think (I know) the fitness industry has the capacity to do a lot of harm if not executed intentionally. The 10 day quick fixes and thigh gaps and bikini body verbiage/pressure may very well work ( for some people who are genetically predisposed to have visible muscle definition) to “perfect” an aesthetic— but that is something VERY different and separate from physical and mental health.
Health Doesn’t Have A Look
You see, physical (or mental, for that matter) health does not have a look. Therefore, all the sculpting and toning in the world is way more about aesthetic preferences (and biases) than it ever was about your ACTUAL well-being.
I know that might feel foreign to read, because that’s DEFINITELY not what we’re sold in the media— but very often, disordered habits are disguised as “wellness”— and said disordered habits are even praised and encouraged! Even worse, our society’s assumptions about people in larger bodies means they live with body trauma and stigma every day despite the fact that it’s been proven that you can be an athlete and exist in a bigger body ( I mean, have you SEEN Lizzo belt while running on the treadmill and playing the flute?! TALK ABOUT BREATH CONTROL AND STAMINA!!!). So, if the wellness industry is theoretically centered around the intention of improving health and well-being, why does it ignore this major piece of the puzzle? Furthermore, why is it ok to equate a beauty standard of thinness with health when they’re not always aligned?
Beauty And Health Have Less Overlap Than You Think They Do
One of my biggest pet peeves (and I have a lot of them 😇) is when people who work in the health and healing profession get these 2 things confused. Sure, I’ll give you that when you’re feeling your best, you’re the most attractive— who doesn’t love a smile and a sunny disposition?— but beauty standards change over time for a lot of reasons: fashion, politics, industrialization (helloooo thanks so much for the invention mass produced clothing for making us collectively believe that humans should fit clothes and not the other way around), NOT TO MENTION how patriarchy and white supremacy inform all of those things. If beauty and health are the same thing, then why did Renaissance painters view curvy women as the picture of health and beauty, when that’s so far from the current (IG modified) standard? Health isn’t influenced by external opinion-it’s the science of your bloodwork, your mood, your daily habits— it has very little to do with bikini season.
Unfortunately, wellness is often diet culture in a more palatable context. Because of the trendiness of body positivity, it’s no longer ok to blatantly fat-shame (TG), but it IS ok to “health” shame. Even ballet companies, some of the worst offenders in the promotion of thinness at any cost, have shifted to asking dancers to be more “fit” when what they really mean is to be smaller. Companies like Noom and WW will say they aren’t diets, they’re “lifestyle changes” when according to psychologists and eating disorder specialists, a diet is exactly what they are.
Conclusion
That said, if you have a specific aesthetic goal, do you. I would offer that I think it’s really, really hard to have a positive relationship with movement when you view it as something that can “fix” a flaw, but that’s your call to make as a consumer of fitness. However, if you WORK in the health space—for the love of God, PLEASE stop saying you’re promoting health when what you mean is you’re selling a beauty standard. It’s not the same. If you wanna sell a beauty standard, that still feels slightly slimy to me, but at least be honest about it. When companies are clear on what they’re selling, consumers can make informed choices about who to support— and protect their health.
This is the exact reason why I created Helen Phelan Studio, because as an eating disorder recovered person myself, I wanted a space where I could push and challenge myself, without being triggered by body shamey “motivation” and could move with the mindset that I’m ALREADY enough. If you’ve never checked it out, there’s a free 10 day trial to see what I mean about how empowering exercise can be.
Other Articles You Might Like:
About Helen + Helen Phelan Studio
Can You Want Weight Loss AND Hate Diet Culture?
You Don’t Have To Love Your Body
When Self Care Is (And Isn’t) Wellness