REV. KATIE NORRIS

The other day I posted a video of me doing push presses on Instagram with this caption: “Finally back at it after injury flair and a two week ridiculous cold. Light weight, but no back pain. #pushpress with a bit too much knee bend, but still good and I felt great. #crossfit #crossfitcoach” Ugh. Why, why, why did I write “light weight?” Because our society messes with our head. No matter how much of a believer you are in body positivity, being shame free, not competing with o

Quite a few years ago, I started writing about body positivity. I talked about not focusing on weight, eating disorder recovery, and mindful eating. Deciding that I would never think about my weight again or never consciously eat in a way that might change my body size was just what I needed. I needed to get out of the mindset that weight was a moral issue and that my worth was based on my size. The research that says weight is not related to health was liberating for me and

By now, most of us have seen the numerous articles about people body shaming Lady Gaga for having a "tummy roll" during her 2017 Super Bowl LI halftime show. These articles all celebrate how most people on the internet are against body shaming and they are coming to Lady Gaga's defense. This is great. However, I also noticed a trend in many of the comments defending Lady Gaga, which is commenting on her body in order to defend it. Many people commented with some form of "Lady

(Wix Stock Photo) We had some professional photos taken of our son and when we got them back, I could not figure out why they looked…funny. The pictures were wonderful, well done, and showed my happy kid, smiling in his Cleveland Cavalier’s shirt. But, right away I knew something was off. The photographers had retouched the photo and removed a scar my son has on his face from a dog bite. The photo, while beautiful, was not my son. It did not reflect who he is and what he has

We finally unpacked some boxes that had been lying around from our recent move. In this box, we found our bathroom scale. I usually never weight myself because I know that focusing on weight is not conducive to recovery from an eating disorder. However, I had also seen a recent photo of myself (above) where I had that moment where I asked myself- “Do I really look like that?” So, I gave in, and I weighed myself, and I am bigger than I was three months ago. I was very upset. T

Recently, Weight Watchers released an ad called “My Butt,” which chronicles a woman’s butt throughout her life and how her butt has increased in size throughout the years. At the end, the woman says: “I finally realized, my relationship with my butt had nothing to do with my butt and everything to do with my brain” as they show the woman putting food into her mouth. This is part of Weight Watcher’s “Help with the Hard Part” campaign, in which they say that their program helps

[Image: Virgie Tovar, Rev. Katie Norris, and Natasha Harden.] Today I attended the "Fatty Winter Wonderland," a clothing swap and holiday bazaar event for women of the plus size community. The event was hosted by Fat Activitst and writer Virgie Tovar and Natasha Harden, owner of Halmoni Vintage. These two amazing women (plus many helpers) put together a wonerful event that created a very safe space for those of us who are plus sized. At her clothing store, Halmoni Village, Na