The gem in the mud of "Healthy at Every Size" is indeed the encouragement of emotional resilience. Perhaps someone is a large person with an unhealthy appetite. This is unfortunate, but it doesn't mean he or she must be resigned to consuming unhealthy foods. Certainly it's better to consume 4,000 kcal per day of vegetables than the same amount in cake.

So often, in a state of despair, we indulge the sunk-cost fallacy by giving up simply because our conditions are not absolutely ideal. This is the emotional phenomenon the HAES seems to have been intended to address.