In the past decade, two major movements have reshaped how we think about health: the wellness lifestyle (focused on nutrition, movement, and mental clarity) and the body positivity movement (focused on self-acceptance and dismantling weight stigma). For years, these two concepts seemed to exist in different universes. Wellness was often co-opted by diet culture, promoting "clean eating" and "detoxes" that subtly villainized certain body types. Meanwhile, body positivity warned that traditional wellness rhetoric could trigger disordered eating and shame.

The conflict arose when body positivity advocates saw wellness as a Trojan horse for fatphobia. If you talk about "eating better," are you implying that a fat person eats poorly? If you talk about "exercising daily," are you implying that a fat person is lazy?

"I haven't given up on health. I've given up on shame. I am taking better care of myself now than I ever did when I was dieting."

You do not have to choose between being healthy and being happy. The two are the same thing when you define health correctly.

That is the essence of the body positivity and wellness lifestyle. Welcome to the real glow up.

So move your body because it feels good. Eat the food that nourishes and satisfies you. Rest when you are tired. And every single day, look at the skin you are in—with its curves, its flatness, its marks, its history—and say:

It is a resource that allows you to live the life you want. And if the pursuit of "health" is making you miserable, anxious, or obsessed with food, then it isn't health anymore—it is illness.