Don’t lose your mind, lose your weight Don't lose your mind, lose your weight This is the only advice I have been hearing for so long now It almost feels like a rosary forced down my neck Knitting knots of prayers I don't need I don't want a prayer I need strength and a hand to hold Not every question is seeking an answer Often it is us begging for an irrelevant validation Something we couldn't give ourselves It's never easy to be kind on yourself without a guilt check waiting to be spit at you My body has learnt how to feel safer here because it has chosen survival, And it's a self taught lesson, I smile the most at the gym I am more sure about fitting into tight jeans I bought, still waiting to be worn I am still not proud of those thighs But love comes slow and I am just starting to embrace my small slice of sky In the women's room at the gym I don't see women I see incomplete poems of self love A testament of true comradeship Where counting gets louder with each attempt closer to quitting I see them making efforts not to stare too much that it seems almost unkind But a reassurance now and then of 'we are together in this' Because we know the difference between acknowledgement and disgust We have been reading the same story in different eyes We let mornings crisp of summer air rests a while on each other's face Before the world again force them to take less space We don't dig up insecurities We don't remind each other of cheat days extended to cheat weeks, but always of a monday you can again start from We are not close to our target measurements We still fear the weighing scale We still laugh off fat rolls as baby fat But we are happy We know we can be beautiful and fat and strong and pretty We all are beginning to love ourselves fiercely This is the bravest revolution I know.