Back to the top
Copyright © 2026 Northern Loop
To be neutral. To move when you want, not when you’re supposed to. To accept that health is not a virtue and illness is not a sin. To look at the leggings and the green juice and the gratitude journals and say, gently, “That is a lovely practice for you. I will be over here, lying on the couch, perfectly fine.”
We are here to practice wellness. But somehow, we are also performing it.
Wellness does not need to be a moral project. Your body is not a garden that requires constant tending. Sometimes, it is just a house you live in. Some days, you clean it. Some days, you let the dishes pile up. Both are allowed. Junior Miss Teen Nudist Pageant
I am not arguing against exercise. I am not arguing against vegetables. I am arguing against the colonization of body positivity by the same perfectionism that diet culture ran on.
Because you were never required to be a success story. You were only required to take up space. And you can do that just fine without the glow. To be neutral
The implication, gentle but devastating, was that if I was still out of breath after one flight of stairs, I wasn’t “honoring my body.” I was being lazy. The wellness script had flipped: rest was no longer radical; it was a failure of will.
The unspoken rule becomes: You can be heavy, but you must be glowing. You can be soft, but you must be flexible. You can reject diet culture, but you must still look like you tried. To look at the leggings and the green
But in 2026, that marriage is showing signs of strain. And I am starting to wonder if we’ve just traded one rigid ideal for another.
To be neutral. To move when you want, not when you’re supposed to. To accept that health is not a virtue and illness is not a sin. To look at the leggings and the green juice and the gratitude journals and say, gently, “That is a lovely practice for you. I will be over here, lying on the couch, perfectly fine.”
We are here to practice wellness. But somehow, we are also performing it.
Wellness does not need to be a moral project. Your body is not a garden that requires constant tending. Sometimes, it is just a house you live in. Some days, you clean it. Some days, you let the dishes pile up. Both are allowed.
I am not arguing against exercise. I am not arguing against vegetables. I am arguing against the colonization of body positivity by the same perfectionism that diet culture ran on.
Because you were never required to be a success story. You were only required to take up space. And you can do that just fine without the glow.
The implication, gentle but devastating, was that if I was still out of breath after one flight of stairs, I wasn’t “honoring my body.” I was being lazy. The wellness script had flipped: rest was no longer radical; it was a failure of will.
The unspoken rule becomes: You can be heavy, but you must be glowing. You can be soft, but you must be flexible. You can reject diet culture, but you must still look like you tried.
But in 2026, that marriage is showing signs of strain. And I am starting to wonder if we’ve just traded one rigid ideal for another.
Copyright © 2026 Northern Loop