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Steps
to FreedomSteps to Freedom through Self Acceptance and Self Care Adapted from Making Peace with Food: Freeing Yourself from the Diet/Weight Obsession by Susan Kano rev. ed. Harper and Row, Inc 1989 Learn to be good to your body- understand your body’s needs and defenses and learn to respect your physical powers and vulnerabilities. Revise what “thin” and “fat” mean to you- reject ‘fattism”; appreciate and respect people of every size and shape, including yourself; stop idealizing slenderness and slender people; expand your appreciation of the human body in all it’s diversity. See people as human beings and not as objects- cultivate awareness of everyone, including yourself, as a person with opinions, values, goals, feelings, intelligence, talents and gifts, rather that as decorative or aesthetic objects. Let go of the dieter’s mindset- learn to listen to your body, pay attention to how food and eating behaviors effect you. Learn to love yourself- strive for unconditional self acceptance; offer yourself unrelenting compassion. Reject sexist values that encourage you to feel selfless, helpless or inadequate. Create a supportive environment- openly contradict harmful influences such as fattism, sexism and weight-loss propaganda; teach friends and relatives how to support rather than undermine your efforts to overcome diet/weight conflicts. Develop a supportive lifestyle- learn how your environment is effecting your lifestyle; sort through your options and experiment; develop a way of eating and exercising that supports your quest for comfort and wellness in your body and soul. |
