Lifestyle

Why The Phrase ‘Nothing Tastes As Good As Thin Feels’ Needs To Go

by Amy Betters-Midtvedt
A woman trying jeans on and looking at her reflection in the mirror.
bymuratdeniz/Getty

Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.

This thought just popped into my brain this morning as I was in triangle pose, looking down at my arm as I barely took time to notice the muscle I’m finally growing but instead my eyes went right to the saggy aging skin around it.

Ugh.

Because you know what? My brain is still programmed to see the bad parts of my body first, even if it’s just in a flash.

And is it any wonder why?

“Nothing tastes as good as thin” feels was a mantra of a generation and it makes me just flat out furious that this thought is so ingrained in my mind that in my 40s it can swoop in uninvited.

We were sold such crap; my friends and our kids are being sold the same exact crap but in new and more varied and shinier packages.

I want to go back and shout, there are so many things that taste as good as thin feels!

Eating ice cream on a hot summer day with your kids, as you laugh and watch it drip right down their arms.

A plate full of turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes that you get to eat sitting at a giant table while looking at the faces of those you love.

The first bite of delicious soup after you have been sick and unable to eat for a few days.

A giant warm cup of coffee full of cream first thing in the morning.

A bite of a crisp apple on a fall day right after it is picked from the tree, or even better one of those they sell at the orchard that is covered in caramel and sprinkles and all the sugar in the land.

A meal your kids make you and you just sit and eat….enjoying their efforts and maybe even the deliciousness they have made.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt/Facebook

Whoever came up with this little phrase?

A LIAR.

LIFE tastes way better than stupid thin could ever feel. What does thin bring us anyway? Why did we ever want to be smaller and take up less space and try and make our bodies whither away into submission? This is all nonsense really.

And it’s still happening to our kids now. Even as people try and say strong is the new skinny, we are so dumb because somehow strong still looks like zero body fat over unreasonable muscles, not like most every other human walking the planet in all the various, wondrous shapes and sizes.

If we feel this way what on earth are our kids supposed to feel like?

We must push a different message straight up over the ones they are seeing. Because the world is yelling things at them and we can’t just whisper to them and hope they hear. We need to get our own heads straight and never stop trying to let them know they are wonderful just the way they are now.

Today let’s not waste one more single minute worrying about words like thin or fat and let’s wash ourselves clean of those words in our brains that tell us our bodies should be dieted and exercised into submission. We can focus on our health in so many ways and trying to achieve thin at all costs should never be one of them.

Let’s never forget to taste life and be dang grateful for these bodies that love and clean and dance and cook and hold and run and love those around us.

Not one of these things has to with being thin. We are worthy just the way we are this minute. We are as God made us. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Amen.