This time of year can be hard for many people — and it’s not just because it’s cold, the sky is mostly grey or white, and spring feels eons away. It is because January is “Resolution Season”: the start of the year is when companies push products they’ve designed to make you feel the need to shrink, alter your image, and lose weight/get fit. Wanting to be healthier or fit isn’t problematic in itself; however, the annual onslaught of ads and attitudes targeting your self-worth is.

In every other species of mammal, the goal for winter survival is to bulk up, conserve energy, and rest until spring shows itself. Humans are the only ones subject to a culture that makes extra effort to make us feel bad for the amount of space we take up.

According to a study by Mayo Clinic, “an estimated 45 million Americans go on a diet each year. Americans spend $33 billion each year on weight-loss products.”

Factor in an increasing demand for glp-1 medications, and you’ve got a whirlwind of cashflow going toward “fixing” what a skewed culture has told us is wrong with us. Sonya Renee Taylor, author of The Body Is Not An Apology, refers to the struggle between society and ourselves as “…tiny apologies society will ask you to render for being in your body as you see fit. For so many of us, sorry has become how we translate the word body.”

When you are someone who has committed to stepping away from the illusions marketers are doling out, it does get easier to see through them…but warding off those messages still takes its toll in some ways. It still requires a person to put up a shield of self-love, challenge the messages bombarding your being, and to resolve not to shrink but to actively claim your space.

Sometimes that could look like challenging the messages from commercials or practicing a script to use with coworkers and friends (“I appreciate that you want to feel your best, but I am not a person to discuss your diet with”). Maybe instead of losing weight, this year’s resolution could be, “I resolve to accept the skin I’m in, no matter how much space that takes up.” Maybe it’s making the choice to put boundaries around your mind and limiting the amount or type of media you consume. This year, your resolution could be to read more of what fuels your spirit in a way that your worth can’t be influenced by glossy pages in a magazine or gimmicky ads during your current binge-watch session. Below is a list of books in our catalog that can help shift your perspective and strengthen your self worth.

Let’s make 2026 the year we stop apologizing for who we are, how much space we occupy, how our bodies exist in the world. Let’s resolve to be as we are, right here and now.

Worried you or a loved one may have an eating disorder? Need more body love resources? Call the National Eating Disorders Association at 1-800-931-2237 or text NEDA to 741741

For help finding local resources, our Reference & Information team can help: 715-839-5004