Congratulations, You're A F*cking Unicorn

This is what I say in my head any time a woman tells me she doesnt really watch what she eats or exercise very much, yet still manages to be a size 6.

Or a woman who is gushing about how she lost her baby weight so easily through breast-feeding.

Or the rarest of women among us, who actually went on a diet once, lost the weight, and now her weight is not an issue for her.

Congratulations Lady, youre a f*cking unicorn.

The reality is that most of us do struggle with controlling our weight . The majority of women do see drastic changes in their body due to childbirth . And the majority of women (and men, for that matter!) do not manage to lose weight and keep it off through dieting .

The $60 Billion we spend as a society on diet and weight loss products each year is evidence of the size of this problem.

And yet, dont many of us feel like were surrounded by a sea of effortlessly skinny, happy people? Like weve got our noses pressed against the glass, watching the life we could have if we could just lose that last ten pounds! play out before us?

This sense of missing out and isolation we experience is the result of the illusion created by powerful marketing messages and imagery designed to make us buy into the multi-billion dollar diet industry. The diet industrys reach is massive. Their messaging is everywhere, all the time. As a result, theyve got us virtually fooled into believing were the only ones who havent entered our credit card number and bought in.

Listen, if youre one of these f*cking unicorn ladies, Im super happy for you. And this piece definitely isnt meant to be derogatory toward or skinny shame anyone. But if youre a f*cking unicorn lady, this piece also really isnt for you.

This piece is for you if youve toiled away for the majority of your life, spending your hard-earned money and precious time chasing the diet myth. This piece is for you if youve spent the past five years losing and gaining back the same hundred pounds, with incremental increases along the way.

This piece is for you if youve taken drastic measures to transform your health, such as gastric bypass surgery, and are still struggling with achieving the results you desire.

This piece is for you if youre reading this at home, alone, with a baby on your boob, feeling like if one more person makes a comment about how you look so great for just having a baby youre going to open-palm slap them.

This piece is for you if looking at photos of yourself from your last vacation brings you to tears, thinking How did I let this happen?

This piece is for you if your co-workers have called you husky, big-boned, Rubenesque, or any other horribly offensive term referencing your size, like theyre trying to get in on some big joke with you.

You may not be a f*cking unicorn, but youre also not a f*cking joke. And youre not a charity case. Your failure to comply with restrictive diet and weight loss programs is not the reason that youre still overweight. You dont have to feel this way forever, or even for the next few days, if you dont want to.

You are a beautiful, unique, valuable human being. We need you to take the best possible care of your body, so you can be healthy and be around for the long haul. But we also need you to stop spending your precious time, money, and energy on trying to un-fat yourself.

Because you have so much to give this world, and as long as you are stuck in a cycle of self-loathing, and putting yourself through hell in pursuit of this perfect body, you are only able to give us a tiny fraction of the greatness you possess.

If youre ready to break up with dieting, embrace your body as it is, and really live at full amplitude, then theres a community of women who are ready and willing to support you. Hop over to melparrish.com and sign up for the #healthyatanysize community to get started!