How Do You Fix A Bad Body Day?

Burnt Toast by Virginia Sole-Smith

Over the past few weeks, I’ve felt myself sliding into a bit of a body spiral, for so many reasons: Summer childcare gaps leave me with less time to do my normal workout schedule, which means I’m stiffer and achier, and yet also less IN my body, than usual. I saw some photos of myself from angles I don’t normally see myself, which felt disorienting and again, took me out of my body. Also, men on the Internet say gross things (generally and often specifically to me). And I heard a friend of a friend (a straight cis man ofc) say a brutally fatphobic thing about Nicola Coughlan. I can normally eye roll that kind of thing (Nicola Coughlan is exquisite, I will not be taking questions!), but for some reason this one lodged in my head. Then there’s the larger world where Ozempic chatter remains loud af. Plus idk, maybe it’s perimenopause? You get it.

One of the great myths of body positivity is that we can achieve (and then forever maintain) total body love. How can any of us have bodies in this world, and get to a place where we never, ever feel bad about how we look?

The good news is that loving your body isn’t a prerequisite for believing in body liberation. We can support fat rights, show up for fat people, and otherwise defend body autonomy, and still feel bad about our necks (or insert any other body part here).

Still, body spirals are not fun. And while I’m grateful they happen much less frequently these days, I’m always delighted when I find my way back out of one. What helped this time is maybe clichéd, but also not:

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