Member-only story
You Don’t Need to Be Thinner in 2020
Your new year’s resolution doesn’t have to be about taking up less space.
The Christmas period is filled with encouragement to eat food society usually tells us not to eat. Advertisements persuade us to consume as much food as possible and eating together is seen as a bonding experience in most families.
Then Christmas is over and the guilt-tripping begins.
It’s still December and I have lost count of the number of adverts I’ve seen on TV for diet programs and deals on gym memberships. Every year is the same and every year we fall for it.
Facebook is littered with statuses declaring “new year, new me” and aspirations to lose weight. It’s as if we think this year will be better as long as we’re thinner.
But it won’t be. I know that because I’ve tried.
2010 was a new year and I decided to create a new me. For the past decade, I had endured bullying around my weight. As I got older I looked back on this time with great sadness because I was never overweight. Now I look back with even more sadness because it wouldn’t have mattered if I was overweight. No one deserves to be teased and humiliated for the way they look.
