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Myths about health abound in our society. Health is often confused with dieting, being thin and engaging in punishing exercise. The idea of health is also often used as a way to shame people into restricting their food and hating their bodies.

Today, in part three of our interview, professor, researcher and registered dietician Michelle Neyman Morris reveals more facts about being truly healthy.

Specifically, Morris shares accurate information about Health At Every Size (HAES), valuable resources on nutrition and how readers can distinguish between good science and marketing ploys.

If you haven’t yet, check out part one and part two.

Every Monday features a tip, activity, inspiring quote or some other tidbit that helps boost your body image, whether directly or indirectly — and hopefully kick-starts the week on a positive note!

Got a tip for improving body image? Email me at mtartakovsky at gmail dot com, and I’ll be happy to feature it. I’d love to hear from you!

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According to Jeffrey Brantley, MD, and Wendy Millstine, NC, in their book, Five Good Minutes in Your Body: 100 Mindful Practices to Help You Accept Yourself & Feel At Home in Your Body, many of us experience our bodies in mainly physical ways. For instance, we might focus on the physical traits we like or dislike.

I’m honored to be participating in Mara’s Teen Week: Words That Heal, an annual blog series where bloggers reveal their experiences with body image, sexuality, and self-esteem during their teen years.

I’ve talked before about my sad body image as a teen. My negative body image was intertwined with my low self-esteem and shaky sense of self. (Clearly, a winning combination.)

Thankfully, many years later, I’ve learned a thing or two. And I’m in a much healthier place.

Here are the secrets I wish I could’ve shared with my teen self.

Every Monday features a tip, activity, inspiring quote or some other tidbit that helps boost your body image, whether directly or indirectly — and hopefully kick-starts the week on a positive note!

Got a tip for improving body image? Email me at mtartakovsky at gmail dot com, and I’ll be happy to feature it. I’d love to hear from you!

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An emotional buildup can be bad for our body image. I’ve written before about how our moods can make or break our body image, how we can turn to dieting as a panacea for the rough spots in our lives, how we can look for comfort in all the wrong places.

Every Monday features a tip, activity, inspiring quote or some other tidbit that helps boost your body image, whether directly or indirectly — and hopefully kick-starts the week on a positive note!

Got a tip for improving body image? Email me at mtartakovsky at gmail dot com, and I’ll be happy to feature it. I’d love to hear from you!

In our society, we walk around with a lot of expectations on our shoulders. I picture many of these expectations as a dumbbell stacked on top of the other, resulting in a heavy pileup of weights — and lots of exhaustion.

There’s the dumbbell that represents appearance. There’s the one that represents perfection, which is intertwined with appearance, weight and shape. And many others that probably fall under the theme of “Be everything to everyone, do it all and make it look easy, while wearing six-inch heels.”

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For years — and to an extent today — I’ve struggled with an apology addiction. I’d say I was sorry if someone bumped into me, if I had a question, if I had a difference of opinion, if I spoke out of turn.

But more often than not I’d also apologize for my appearance. I wouldn’t explicitly say “I’m sorry for my weight” or “I’m sorry for my looks.” But my behavior would ooze with apology.

Maybe yours did or does, too. Maybe you also don’t specifically utter “I’m sorry,” but your actions scream it.

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Our society assumes that shaming is an effective strategy to get people to lose weight, in order to, you know, get healthier and take better care of themselves.

(Not true, of course; you don’t need to lose weight to get healthy; you can just adopt healthy habits.)

That we need to be brutally honest with fat people and stop coddling them. They need to know, in very blunt terms, that they’re too big and too unhealthy.

I’ve gotten comments like this here on Weightless. And while I appreciate a difference of opinion, these comments make me cringe, and they make me frustrated.

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I’m a huge fan of Rosie Molinary, the author of Beautiful You: A Daily Guide to Radical Self Acceptance and Hijas Americanas: Beauty, Body Image, and Growing Up Latina.

I’ve referred to her books countless times here on Weightless, and I’ve even interviewed her. (Here’s part 1 and part 2.)

I love that both Beautiful You and Rosie’s blog offer valuable and practical suggestions on building self-acceptance. I’ve certainly learned a lot from her writing.

Below, Rosie shares incredibly empowering words about never playing small.

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Mara from Medicinal Marzipan is one of my favorite bloggers. Not only is she a beautiful writer, but she always has a wise and thoughtful take on everything from body image to emotional eating. She’s honest and writes with her heart. She gives readers practical and valuable tools to respect and appreciate our bodies and ourselves — and she always raises thought-provoking questions.

Below, Mara explores the meaning and process of loving our bodies. Many of us just aren’t there yet. And that’s totally OK. Mara offers a brilliant idea that’ll help.

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Today, I’m honored to share a guest post by Kate Fridkis of the excellent blog Eat the Damn Cake. This is part of a series called Body Image Warrior Week, which was started by Sally at Already Pretty.

Here’s just a snippet from Kate’s “about” page, which I think so many of us can relate to: “Women should be able to eat the damn cake. We should be able to look in the mirror and like what we see. I love cake. But when I lift the fork, this monologue starts in my head. It’s about my arm fat and my waist fat and the fact that if you have this particular face, as I do, then you can’t really afford to gain weight. Sometimes I think we’re all wrestling with an image of the imaginary perfect woman. I’m sick of her.”

Below, Kate explains beautifully why she writes about body image, and why it’s important .