I mean, it would be so much easier if that plan existed. That’s why I spent the first ten years of my career as a women’s magazine/health journalist looking for it. Can confirm, does not exist. And… that’s actually hugely freeing. Because it means we can stop measuring our worth as mothers and women by arbitrary external metrics.
By the way, I realize this may sound like I’m equating wanting healthy children (and understandable goal we all share) with wanting skinny jeans (easier to dismiss as shallow/vanity/etc). The fact is, I sort of am. It’s normal to want healthy kids and it’s normal to want to be thin and it’s normal to equate thin and health because our culture constantly emphasizes and conflates these things. But what these two goals really have in common is that, in the most important ways, they’re out of your control. And if you “fail” at one or both (raises hand), you can still have amazing kids and a pretty damn good life.
As always, more on this in The Eating Instinct.
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