Size-Acceptance and Giving Up
by Anne S. Kaplan

Those who still believe (or desperately cling to the hope) that the solution to all their problems can be found in thin-ness, and, that thin-ness can be found in dieting, often accuse us in the size-acceptance movement of "giving up".

Well, in many ways, we DO give up:

• Because there is NOT EVEN ONE weight loss method (diet, program, medication, or surgery) with a five-year success rate better than 5% (i.e., they all fail at least 95% of the time), we give up, i.e., let go of, the idea that deliberate permanent safe weight loss is possible. It is not. Period.
• We give up our continued funding of the mega-billion-dollar diet & weight loss industry, which feeds off our misery while ruining our health.
• We give up health care providers who do not support our wellness at whatever size we are, or who do not see as fully alive human beings.
• We give up the idea that our lives must be placed on hold until we magically become thin.
• We give up, i.e., release the negative connotations of the word "fat", and reclaim it as simple, factual descriptor, no different than tall, brown-eyed, red-headed, black-skinned, curly-haired, etc.
• We give up our toleration of fat bigotry in any form.
• We give up our willingness to allow Hollywood and Madison Avenue to dictate our expectations of beauty, wellness, and acceptance.
• We absolutely give up any connection between numbers on a scale and our own sense of self-worth.
• We give up our scales altogether, as they have nothing of value to tell us.
• We give up the pursuit of thinness in favor of the pursuit of fitness.
• We give up the illusion that losing weight is a solution to whatever difficulties we may have in life.
• Even if there were a "magic wand" to make us miraculously overnight become whatever size we chose, we give up the belief that this would make us magically be someone we are not now.
• We give up food obsession in favor of life passion.
• We give up the assumption that one must be thin to be beautiful, or sexy, or to get married, or to become pregnant, or to earn a promotion, or to be a star, or to do and be whatever our heart desires.