Can You Stay Off ‘Fat Talk’ — For A Week?

I’m not one for these weeks devoted to self awareness and all, but this one is certainly carrying the right message. I work on this sort of stuff every single day. Self talk – the little voice we have inside of us that second guesses, fills you with self doubt and questions or self worth. It’s the same voice that tries to deflate and devalue all the work I have done living healthy and fit.

It’s not uncommon for women (or even men) to bond with each other over the travails of their appearance: their hair, their clothes, their weight, their fat. Sound familiar? If so, take note. The week of Oct. 16-22 isFat Talk Free Week. It’s a week in which people are encouraged to stop their “fat talk.” What is fat talk? It’s comments like” I feel so fat in these clothes,” or “do I look fat?” It can also be saying to someone else, “You look great, did you lose weight?” This implies that lost weight is the metric of looking good.

Although some women say that such talk makes them feel better, research suggests that in fact the opposite is true. Do you engage in fat talk? If so, here’s a challenge: Try not doing it — for a day, then for a string of days, then for a week. And what better time then during Fat Talk Free week.

If you partake in fat talk, it’s in part because our culture encourages it. Through various media (including TV, film, magazine ads and articles), we’re all encouraged to think that our bodies should approximate a thin “ideal.” And if we don’t have that type of body (which the vast majority of us don’t), then we shouldn’t feel okay about our bodies. Unfortunately, most of us go along with this premise and we dislike our bodies. Fight back against this premise and the way it makes you feel. To help you in this endeavor, Oct. 19 is Love Your Body Day.

This song by Pink always speaks to that voice inside —