Please note that this is an Archived article and may contain content that is out of date. The use of she/her/hers pronouns in some articles is not intended to be exclusionary. Eating disorders can affect people of all genders, ages, races, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations, body shapes, and weights.

By Quinn Nystrom

As I sat scrolling through my social media feeds on New Year’s Day, I was inundated with ads to buy into plans to “get thin” and “lose weight quick” and make my New Year’s resolution about “changing my body.” So first, I’m going to say this…New Year’s resolutions are complete bullsh*t! I don’t buy into them. I certainly did in the past, though! I’ve lived with an eating disorder since 12, and I first sought treatment at 24. I hated my body for decades! Why? In part, society told me I wasn’t beautiful, or I didn’t have the ideal body type. Another, I was silently suffering from an eating disorder that I didn’t even know I had.

A friend of mine posted a beautiful poem by Donna Ashworth, and I wanted to share it here because it resonated with me.

A poem for the new year

Why do we start a new year, with promises to improve?

Who began this tradition of never-ending pressure?

I say, the end of a year, should be filled with congratulation, for all we survived.

And I say a new year should start with promises to be kinder to ourselves, to understand better just how much we bear, as humans on this exhausting treadmill of life.

And if we are to promise more, let’s pledge to rest, before our bodies force us.

Let’s pledge to stop, and drink in life as it happens.

Let’s pledge to strip away a layer of perfection to reveal the flawed and wondrous humanity we truly are inside.

Why start another year, gifted to us on this earth, with demands on our already over-strained humanity.

When we could be learning to accept, that we were always supposed to be imperfect.

And that is where the beauty lives, actually.

And if we can only find that beauty, we would also find peace.

I wish you peace in 2023.

Everything else is all just a part of it.

Let it be so.

I’m grateful that I choose recovery daily. I’m grateful I no longer resort to alcohol to numb my pain. I’m grateful for the quality time I get to spend with family. I’m grateful for my body that I can ski down the mountains of Colorado, carry our six-year-old up the stairs, and that after 23 long years of living with type 1 diabetes, I’m still kicking!

P.S. If you’re like me and are sick of seeing the weight loss ads on Instagram, go to…

1. Settings

2. Ads

3. Ad Topics

4. Click search bar, then “body weight control methods.”