Happiful March 2020

@GRACEFVICTORY
Grace recommends
Body Positive Power: How
to stop dieting, make peace
with your body and live
By Megan Jayne Crabbe
(Vermilion, £12.99)
Health at Every Size:
The surprising truth
about your weight
By Linda Bacon
(BenBella Books, £10.99)
This is why our relationship with
food – and ourselves – becomes so
skewed. We tear ourselves down
in any way that we can, and even
though 95% of diets do not work,
we blame ourselves if we don’t lose
weight. We exercise to look good,
despite feeling like utter crap. We
constantly think about our bodies
in a negative way, and every day
that goes past is another day of
self-loathing and self-deprecating
behaviour.
But we hardly see it, because it’s
normal to hate who we are, and
radical not to. We disconnect from
parts of us in a bid to become
smaller versions of ourselves. We
shrink, pick, and even cut away at
who we are, in the desperate hope
that we will find happiness in a
smaller pair of jeans.
And this was me, and sometimes,
it is still me. I’ve been so much
thinner than I am now, and it still
wasn’t enough. I got to my goal
weight and the goal changed, and
then all of a sudden I was Googling
boob jobs and bum lifts. It became
apparent that no matter what I
looked like, I still wouldn’t like
myself. It wasn’t my body after all.
Happiness and self-actualisation
cannot be found on the outside
– it is about the inner you. It is
about knowing who you really
were before you internalised
other people’s standards. It is
about setting your own standards.
It is about letting go of fear, and
instead choosing love. Life does
not begin when you’re thin. Life is
happening now. So, stop engaging
in behaviours, conversations, and
diets that make you feel like you’re
not good enough. You are.
Love
Grace
x
March 2020 • happiful.com • 29