Emboldened Truth Teller

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Body Mass Index (BMI) is a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters. A high BMI can be an indicator of high body fatness. BMI can be used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems but it is not diagnostic of the body fatness or health of an individual.”

Even as a wellness warrior and soul coach, I haven’t thought about BMI since I read this amazing article. The premise of this article is that eighth grade students were weighed and their height was measured in front of their classmates to determine their BMI since both measurements are used in deriving/calculating BMI. This student fought back and succinctly told her teacher why she wouldn’t ascribe to school of thought.

One thing I loved about this is that she didn’t simply make a determination based solely on her own feelings, but also spoke with her pediatrician to get an accurate medical appraisal and took back the conversation about her body and stated in no uncertain terms that her body was a good and healthy body.

While I was still living in Las Vegas, I participated in a yoga challenge called, “This is a Good Body”. The hashtag that trended with this challenge was #thisisagoodbody. The founders, four of my friends, did not believe it would become the sensation and life giving space and platform that it grew into. It was such a beautiful, therapeutic and cathartic space for them, me and countless others to land and be surrounded by love and light, truth and compassion.

This goes deeper than what BMI objectively means. The measurement is antiquated and doesn’t account for people with a lot more muscle than fat amongst other things. Further, pretty much nothing in this world is truly an objective measure, but that’s a whole other story. I love that this young lady felt emboldened, compelled and empowered to speak her truth about this and that this community in which I found myself, Jesus + Yoga felt emboldened, compelled and empowered to speak their truth collectively so that we in the community feel emboldened, compelled and empowered to speak our truth.