Fat-positive health professional experience!
This is just a personal experience I had recently that I'd like to share, because I found it really positive.
I recently moved (again) and had to register with a new GP, which meant having a new patient appointment with a nurse. I generally do not like these type of appointments because of bad experiences in the past (and with regular appointments that had nothing to do with weight). However, the nurse was lovely, and when she did the standard weight/height measurements, she said:
"Ok, you have a BMI of 36, which is technically a bit overweight..."
(actually obese, but I hate the way figures are used in this way, as I'm always told it's unhealthy, even when they haven't taken into account my diet, smoking habits, exercise etc.)
Anyway, she continued...
"But I like to just ask patients whether they feel healthy?", which I thought was brilliant, because rather than tell me that I'm unhealthy, which is what I was expecting, she was allowing me to judge the healthiness of my own body for myself (which is a rare thing amongst health professionals, who generally act like they know your body better than you do in my experience).
I told her I felt I needed to exercise more because I know I have more energy when I do, rather than to specifically lose weight, and had just got out of the routine of doing so, but apart from that I felt ok, and she replied, "Well, just thirty minutes of walking a few times a week could help get you back into a routine...but it's not the best time of year to be thinking about exercising...maybe in the New Year you could try exercising a bit more regularly!"
I found this experience really positive because she didn't start lecturing me about being unhealthy for being overweight, and focused on being healthy rather than an arbitrary number, but most of all, she allowed me to judge for myself whether I felt healthy.
I recently moved (again) and had to register with a new GP, which meant having a new patient appointment with a nurse. I generally do not like these type of appointments because of bad experiences in the past (and with regular appointments that had nothing to do with weight). However, the nurse was lovely, and when she did the standard weight/height measurements, she said:
"Ok, you have a BMI of 36, which is technically a bit overweight..."
(actually obese, but I hate the way figures are used in this way, as I'm always told it's unhealthy, even when they haven't taken into account my diet, smoking habits, exercise etc.)
Anyway, she continued...
"But I like to just ask patients whether they feel healthy?", which I thought was brilliant, because rather than tell me that I'm unhealthy, which is what I was expecting, she was allowing me to judge the healthiness of my own body for myself (which is a rare thing amongst health professionals, who generally act like they know your body better than you do in my experience).
I told her I felt I needed to exercise more because I know I have more energy when I do, rather than to specifically lose weight, and had just got out of the routine of doing so, but apart from that I felt ok, and she replied, "Well, just thirty minutes of walking a few times a week could help get you back into a routine...but it's not the best time of year to be thinking about exercising...maybe in the New Year you could try exercising a bit more regularly!"
I found this experience really positive because she didn't start lecturing me about being unhealthy for being overweight, and focused on being healthy rather than an arbitrary number, but most of all, she allowed me to judge for myself whether I felt healthy.