health is more than weight

When I quit drinking, I lost a LOT of weight. I actually didn’t even notice it myself at first - mostly because my focus was elsewhere - but people kept saying it to me. “You’ve lost so much weight - what are you doing differently?”

This sometimes made me feel great. It also sometimes made me feel self-conscious and uncomfortable. Quitting alcohol was very raw and personal, especially in the early days - and I didn’t want to share the story with everyone who asked.

These comments also created a fixation that never before existed within me. On weight loss. I started stopping at the nurses clinic once a week on my way into school and stepping on the scale. Every week I’d celebrate. The weight loss comments affected me. A lot.

“You’ve lost weight” should be removed from our compliment vocabulary. While it’s well intended, can be problematic for a few reasons. The first is we never really know the true reason for someone else’s weight loss. It could be due to stress, sadness or illness. In my case it was a raw and personal struggle that talking about was difficult. The second is it contributes to the fatphobic narrative in our society. That people are somehow “better” if they’re smaller. And lastly - we don’t know what these comments could trigger in the people around us.

We need to choose better words. Maybe “you look healthier!” Or “you look happier”? I also am vowing now to choose better words, too. I will stop mentioning my weight loss from sobriety and I’ll stop stepping on the scale to check it. Because I don’t want body weight to become something that shapes or drives my journey.

This is the reason why I didn’t post a before-and-after transformation of my 90 days alcohol free. I didn’t quit drinking to lose weight. So I don’t want the focus to be the weight I lost. I want the focus to be on feeling happier and living healthier. Being a body positive and inclusive yoga teacher is important to me. However much you weigh shouldn’t matter. Because “health is more than weight. Beauty is more than weight. Worthiness is more than weight. Pass it on.”