{"id":64427,"date":"2021-11-02T17:04:55","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T00:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=64427"},"modified":"2021-11-02T17:04:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T00:04:55","slug":"body-positivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/body-positivity\/","title":{"rendered":"Views from NAU: UCAN love your body\u2026 just the way you are"},"content":{"rendered":"

*Editors note: The \u201cViews from NAU\u201d blog series is written by NAU affiliates and reflects the views of the author.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>By\u00a0Hannah Rahn<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Senior in psychological sciences and founder of NAU’s Body Positivity Club<\/h3>\n
\n

Our culture is obsessed with\u00a0being\u00a0thin. Like many college students, I\u2019ve fallen prey to wishing, hoping and praying for my body to look like those I see in the media. Looking back on my college journey, I can see just how much my thoughts about weight and health have shifted and how much healthier I am now because of it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Health at Every Size\u00a0(HAES)\u00a0paradigm\u00a0is a concept that I first heard about my\u00a0freshman year of college in my Healthy Lifestyles course.\u00a0Health\u00a0sciences\u00a0professor\u00a0<\/span>Dawn Clifford<\/span><\/b>\u00a0came to speak to my class about HAES and the truth about health\u00a0and weight.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The truth is that weight is a lousy predictor of health and pursuing weight loss may cause more harm than good. In other words, we can\u2019t judge a person\u2019s mental or physical health based on the number on the scale, nor should we all try to fit the mold of certain body shapes and sizes endorsed by the Body Mass Index scale or the misrepresentation of bodies in the media. Health is better supported by pursuing health-supporting habits regardless of weight outcomes and eliminating the weight stigma that plagues our culture.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This message resonated with me,\u00a0and the more I learned about it, the more I realized how powerful and life-changing this message is.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, I have been\u00a0trained as a UCAN\u00a0health coach, started the Body Positivity Club on campus and\u00a0currently serve as the\u00a0UCAN\u00a0Health\u00a0Coach\u00a0Manager. All of these ambitions and experiences stem from\u00a0the powerful and convincing scientific evidence\u00a0that supports\u00a0a body-positive\u00a0message and\u00a0a belief that\u00a0everyone\u00a0can\u00a0benefit from\u00a0embracing a non-diet approach and becoming more weight-inclusive.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Health at Every Size movement is about\u00a0eliminating\u00a0weight\u00a0bias, getting rid of the\u00a0stigma\u00a0surrounding not being thin\u00a0and educating people\u00a0on\u00a0the truth about health.\u00a0By looking through the HAES lens, you see the\u00a0whole person and all aspects of health instead of only physical health. Weight is not a determinant of health by any means,\u00a0which is why I try to shift the focus away from weight when I am talking with clients\u00a0and\u00a0instead\u00a0invite them to focus on health-supporting behaviors and how they are feeling.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Are their behaviors helping or hurting their physical and emotional health?\u00a0Do they feel energized? Confident? Strong? Happy? Do they feel restricted in their eating? Does exercise feel like a chore? By asking these questions and making changes that will help them feel better overall, their health improves despite what the number on the scale says.\u202fPlus, I notice my clients walk away feeling more confident and less worried about food and their body.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Body positivity goes hand-in-hand with the HAES movement. Body positivity is about loving yourself so much that you want to treat your body right by implementing health-supporting\u00a0habits into your daily life. This movement takes the focus off of weight and instead focuses on unconditional love and acceptance.\u00a0It\u2019s important to focus on changing behaviors to feel better, but at the end of the day, your body is going to be the size it is meant to be based on your genetics, so stop trying to control it.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Through guest speakers and videos, members of the Body Positivity Club are educated about HAES and body positivity so they can spread this message to people within the\u00a0NAU and\u00a0Flagstaff communities\u00a0to\u00a0feel more confident with themselves.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe this is such an important message to share with students considering how saturated the media is with myths about health. I have had many heartbreaking conversations with people about\u00a0the hatred they have for\u00a0their body. It blows my mind how many people will spend the majority of their life hating the one body they have,\u00a0which often leads them down a dangerous path of unhealthy behaviors.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To start the journey of healing your\u00a0relationship with\u00a0your\u00a0body,\u00a0consider filtering\u00a0your\u00a0social media feed by unfollowing accounts that make\u00a0you\u00a0feel bad about\u00a0yourself\u00a0and follow body positive accounts that promote\u00a0the\u00a0Health at Every Size\u00a0movement instead. Another tip is to write affirming words on the mirror or sticky notes to remind yourself that you are worth much more than a number on a scale.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals is important so that\u00a0they\u00a0can support you on your health journey.\u00a0Set boundaries with the body shamers in your life and make new friends\u00a0who\u00a0celebrate differences and eliminate diet culture language from conversations.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One way to find those like-minded individuals is by joining the Body Positivity Club! Follow us on\u00a0Instagram\u00a0<\/span>@naubodypositivity2.0<\/span><\/a>. If you feel that extra support would be beneficial to you, UCAN health coaches are trained to discuss body image and all things health related.\u00a0Visit the\u00a0<\/span>UCAN\u00a0website<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to sign up for a free initial session.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*Editors note: The \u201cViews from NAU\u201d blog series is written by NAU affiliates and reflects the views of the author. By\u00a0Hannah Rahn Senior in psychological sciences and founder of NAU’s Body Positivity Club Our culture is obsessed with\u00a0being\u00a0thin. Like many college students, I\u2019ve fallen prey to wishing, hoping and praying for my body to look…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":64433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1815,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lumberjack-features","category-views-from-nau"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}