5 fun ways to celebrate Women’s Healthy Weight Day

January 19, 2024 Queer Forty Staff 5 min read

January 19 is Women’s Healthy Weight Day and we want you to feel good about whatever weight you are, while keeping a few healthy habits in your everyday routine.

All bodies are beautiful, but for some women over 40, and also trans folks, weight gain can be a byproduct of getting older or transitioning. One study showed that 21% of transfeminine individuals and 30% of transmasculine individuals put on in excess of 11 pounds during hormone therapy. That may not be a bad thing, at all. Whether you are a cisgender queer woman over forty or trans, reaching and maintaining an “ideal” weight is not as important as maintaining physical, mental, and social wellbeing. If you are getting the right amount of nutrition, physical exercise, mental habits, and restful sleep, your so-called “ideal” read: natural weight should materialize.

Women’s Healthy Weight Day was created to discourage the obsession with weight loss and to celebrate women’s natural weight by focusing on their overall health. We’ve all heard that we need to drink more water and get more sleep to lose weight. Here are five more tips to help.

Stop counting calories

Don’t count calories, there’s no pleasure in it, just obsessiveness. Do count your steps and while you’re at it, throw away the bathroom scales. The point is to feel good, healthy and active at whatever weight you are happy with.

Eat often, but eat healthier

Changing it up keeps your body guessing and your metabolism revving. Starving or denying yourself isn’t a great strategy. If your body isn’t sure where the next meal is coming from, it’s likely to hang onto the fat that’s already stored.

If you’re the type of person who finds routine boring rather than reassuring, don’t overdo diet foods or calorie restricted meals. A 2015 study found that eating a varied mix of nutrient-dense foods may improve your metabolic health, including reducing hypertension, cholesterol, and excess fat around the middle. You’ve no doubt heard the adage that French women eat whatever they like and remain slim. It’s true, according to this French woman, and she explains why that is — including factors such as variety, smaller portions, meals made from real and fresh food, not snacking and eating slowly to savor all the flavors.

Move your body!

Get up and move! Find any excuse. Did you know that inactivity and sitting for long periods of time makes you feel hungry? Leptin and ghrelin are two hormones that regulate your appetite. When you sit all day and your metabolism slows right down, these hormones tell tell your body that you need food (a quick burst of energy) when you really don’t. Often, if you get up and go for a walk, those hunger pangs simply vanish.

So give yourself plenty of errands to break up your work day, for example maybe you go to Costco once a month in the car and load up in bulk. That’s fine if you’re trying to save money. But consider running to the store once a day to pick up the fresh things you need. Maybe that’s a bunch of herbs, some flowers, a ripe avocado, a fragrant pineapple, a lemon… You see where we are going with this! Give yourself a reason and a reward to get up and get out of the house. If you feel it’s counterproductive to go walk for food because the chocolate aisle might beckon, fine, just be sure to buy a piece of good quality, high cacao choc. Or better yet devise other errands such as composting, recycling, or even offer to walk a neighbor’s dog!

Smile, and have more sex

Turn that frown upside down! And we don’t mean in a “smile, sweetheart” sexist sense. We mean smile and laugh because smiling actually not only changes your mood by working your face muscles, it also burns calories. Researchers have discovered that just 15 minutes of laughter a day can help you burn between 10 and 40 calories. Additionally, sex of any kind counts as a little workout and reaching orgasm can burn an additional 60 to 100 calories, according to studies.

Start small, do it often

It’s important when setting goals or adopting new behaviors to not overdo it. Over-reaching means you are less likely to stick to your goals and healthy new habits because you can become exhausted by them or sick of them and feel you’ve “done that”. You’re not going to be able to run a marathon if you’ve never gone on a long walk or a little jog. Small steps lead to success.