Plus Size Clothes and Healthy Body Image

There is a school of thought that says if you wear plus size clothes you are not healthy. This just isn’t true. Of course if your weight is causing serious health problems, then yes staying plus size is not a good idea. However, the majority of plus size women are perfectly healthy and in shape. What is true is you have to have a healthy body image no matter what size you are. Just because you carry around a few more pounds and shop in the plus size clothing section, doesn’t mean you can’t be in the best shape possible and be at peace with your own body.

This may seem like a great challenge to women and men, who have for all their lives, been teased and put down for their size. Everyone carries scars of the past no matter what size they are, and to be a well adjusted happy person there comes a time to forgive others and yourself for the comments and pranks pulled on you. Holding grievances and hostility toward others and yourself does nothing but poison your mind and spirit.

It is said the best medicine is forgiveness. Think of it this way, if you were teased because you wore plus size clothes as a child or young adult, and you have not forgiven the ignorant people who did this to you, they aren’t even aware they hurt you. Here you are carrying around the resentment and anger for people who probably don’t even remember doing anything to you. Forgiveness releases your mind and energies to focus on productive and healthy matters, not the past.

Did the teasing hurt, yes it did. There’s no denying that being singled out because you were bigger than your classmates is painful. But there is no reason to keep toting around the pain. Another way of thinking of this is that everything you’ve been through has made you the person you are today. All of the past hurts and disappointments have made you stronger and more resilient. The old saying, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” has never been truer than for the man or woman who has had to endure the taunts for wearing plus size clothes.

So how do you move from hurt to healthy? Remember that you are a unique person. No one on earth is just like you. Even identical twins are different. No one like you has lived up to this point in time, and there will be no one exactly like you after you are gone. Plus size clothes do not define who you are. Plus size clothes are only a covering for your body which is a covering for your spirit. And it is this spirit inside of you that makes you who you are.

Have you ever met an older person who is wrinkly and saggy, but they have a vibrant and bright spirit? Then you know what this means. Let go of your past and embrace who you are today. This is the first step to a healthy body image. You can do it. You must do it to be truly happy. Forgive others and forgive yourself, and you will be on your way to true peace and being comfortable in your own skin.