By Jennie

New year’s brings the inevitable (and at times dreaded) new year’s resolutions, the most common of which is to lose weight. This week, many will embark on diet and exercise plans that will probably be abandoned by January 31, if not much sooner. The lack of consistent success with traditional weight-loss plans has caused some to reevaluate the way we approach diet and exercise programs. Health at Every Size (HAES) is a model that focuses on intuitive eating and the pursuit of fun physical activity as an alternative to traditional diets and exercise plans.

Is it really possible to be healthy at any size, though? My instinctive answer is no, and indeed some of the criticism of the movement seems to focus on the idea that it’s disingenuous (even dangerous) to suggest that one can be both, say, 100 pounds overweight, and healthy. Part of the philosophy of HAES involves body acceptance and promoting a positive self-image, which reinforces the idea that HAES is part of the Fat Acceptance Movement, a movement that is in itself controversial as it’s seen as promoting an unhealthy lifestyle.

Reading more about what the HAES movement espouses, though, it seems that the tenets of the philosophy are reasonable and rather sensible. I couldn’t find an official HAES website, but this site, Body Positive, appears to be a pretty good source for information. The philosophy is distilled by Jon Robison, a professor with a masters in nutrition, into the following key points:

1. Self-Acceptance: Affirmation and reinforcement of human beauty and worth irrespective of differences in weight, physical size and shape.
2. Physical Activity: Support for increasing social, pleasure-based movement for enjoyment and enhanced quality of life.
3. Normalized Eating: Support for discarding externally-imposed rules and regimens for eating and attaining a more peaceful relationship with food by relearning to eat in response to physiological hunger and fullness cues.

None of that sounds too radical to me. And I do agree that the BMI sometimes seems rather restrictive and unrealistic. I’m not sure that any of this adds up to “healthy at every size”, but it seems like a program worth trying for those who have tried and failed traditional diets