The Body Keeps the Score*

It’s a bit demoralizing…The more I look into this whole weight loss idea, the more I realize that only one bit of data seems consistent: from around the 1950’s, apparently, there has been research suggesting that the key to being slim is to never get fat. Most diet/weight ideas end up with as much data disproving them as supporting, but no one seems to have research saying the above is untrue. Once you’ve been fat, it is easier to be fat again. The reasons are disputed, but no one seems to deny the fact.

It’s as if, once your body has believed it needs extra weight to protect you, it will never be convinced you won’t need it again…-?-…Even if the message of “need” was a faulty transmission from your thyroid, or a cortisol load from chronic stress.

Then there’s an article about the whole “What looks younger? Curves with a smooth face, or a fit body and wrinkles?” So let’s start fretting again about how the skin-stretch from extra weight will cause aging once the pounds drop.

It all makes for an endless and loud internal debate about how hard weight loss will be, and whether we can lose enough, and will it all be worth it…

Aesthetically, a smooth face may look younger than a wrinkled one; yet our society denigrates extra pounds; yet our society does not revere age…

Health-wise, an appropriate weight has numerous advantages! But your healthy weight may allow for wrinkles, or be heavier than the national ideal…

Which brings us back to the aesthetics, which leads back to the idea of health, which leads back to aesthetics, which leads to…yadda yadda yadda.

What it may boil down to is psychological health, and whether feeling good can protect us from society’s opinions of both age and weight?

I’m thinking it can.

There is solid research that shows that physical health is a major determinant of mental health. Whether it is jogging to relieve depression, or yoga to heal trauma, or meditation to ease ADD, or the potential effects of gut flora on mood – over and over again we find that you can use your body as an input to your mind.

What if the value of our healthy weight is in being happy — an internal, positive thing within the scope of our control? What if the value is NOT on being sexy or young or popular — all external perceptions by others who are waaaayyy out of our control?

Notice the quiet? The debate grows silent. Happiness wins.

* The Body Keeps the Score is a book by Bessel Van Der Kolk – densely packed, and full of some troubling stories of trauma, but an amazing look at how the body and mind are connected, and how working with the body can help heal trauma.