With a new year comes the all-too-familiar pressure to lose weight.

As the ball drops at midnight, the diet industry gears up to welcome women who mark Jan. 1 as the day they will begin restricting and training their bodies into the slim ideal. It's all a part of the "New Year, New You" mantra we have been taught to value as gospel.

See also: 9 hashtags that champion body positivity for all

While the pressure to shrink your body is a constant for women year-round, the value of thinness is especially emphasized when New Year's resolutions are thrown into the mix. It's a time of year when hating yourself is made easy, packaged and sold by the diet industry as flaws in need of fixing. Many of us buy into it — but we don't have to.

Body positive activists are constantly advocating for radical body love, but that work takes on undeniable significance this time of year. These women shout above the negative noise, working to build up collective body confidence and self-love in a world where women are constantly marked as needing improvement.

To challenge the "New Year, New You" mantra, we asked eight body positive activists what they would say to women in the new year — when the pressure to lose weight is inescapable and suffocating. Here's what they had to say.

Ragen Chastain, writer at Dances With Fat and activist

"Every year, women are told that we'll really start the year off right with some body hatred, food restriction and punishing exercise. This doesn't so much lead to a thinner 'new us' as it does to disappointment, more body hatred and a ton of profit for the diet industry.

"This year, instead of focusing on being less, let's focus on being more. Resolve to have more gratitude for everything your body does for you. Take up more space in the world. Speak up more about things that are important to you. Do more joyful movement. Eat more delicious food that nourishes you. This year, instead of trying for to create a 'new you,' resolve to take the old you out for a spin. I think you'll find that she's pretty spectacular."

Virgie Tovar, author, activist and creator of #LoseHateNotWeight

Image: courtesy of Virgie Tovar

"What if I told you that the current you was actually pretty awesome and you didn't in fact need a you-replacement? I'm an anti-resolution enthusiast because my 250-pound body is perfect just as it is ... Reframe the ideology that positions your body as the thing that is keeping you from fulfilling your greatest (and skinniest) destiny. Your body is many things, but I promise it's not your enemy. The size of your body will never be the most important or greatest thing about you.

"Your body does incredible things every moment of every day ... Every day your body sweats to keep you cool. Your eye perceives a million different colors, so many colors that language cannot even describe all of them. It helps you remember the most beautiful moments of your life. Because of your body, you are able to laugh and experience and do and feel."

Melissa Fabello, managing editor at Everyday Feminism and body acceptance activist

Image: courtesy of Melissa Fabello

"It's time for us to stop setting New Year's resolutions altogether and to start setting revolutions instead — to, rather than resolving ourselves to 'self-improvement' defined by systems set up to oppress us, revolt against them. Set goals in terms of treating yourself with more compassion, take more fashion risks, enjoy more time at the beach, go out for brunch more — do all the things that you keep promising yourself you'll do when you lose 'X' number of pounds.

"You don't need to lose weight to experience your best self. You just need to resolve yourself to living the life you imagine –- in exactly the skin you're already in. You'd be amazed at how that mental shift can be the best choice you've ever made in terms of health and happiness."

Jes Baker, creator of The Militant Baker, author of Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls and body positive advocate

Image: courtesy of Jes Baker

"Fat isn't an indicator of being unhealthy, and being thin is no assurance of good health. Thin bodies can be unhealthy, and fat bodies can be unhealthy. Additionally, thin bodies can be healthy and fat bodies can indeed be healthy. So, 'losing weight' isn't a goal that necessarily serves us in 'bettering' ourselves. In fact, it does nothing more than gift your dollars to an industry that makes billions off physical insecurities.

"I can also tell you your worth as a human is not dictated by your medical charts or ability to run marathons. You have inherent value — every human does. It's really that simple.

"Remember this: You're absolutely perfect and valuable just the way you are (yes, I'm serious) and making goals from a place of knowing your self-worth is a surefire way to ensure 2016 is a year to remember and love."

Pia Schiavo-Campo, size acceptance activist and blogger at Mixed Fat Chick

Image: courtesy of Pia Schiavo-Campo

"New Year's resolutions around weight loss are heavily influenced by fat-hating propaganda and big companies who make money off women with low self-esteem. Our diet-obsessed culture has fed into the thin, white, beauty ideal for far too long.

"My response to the ads for the latest exercise craze, discounted gym memberships or the diet book that 'will finally change your life' is a big fat middle finger with a side of cake. Now is the time to flood your Instagram feed with photos of beautiful bodies in all shapes, colors and sizes.

"If you want to make a resolution, resolve to find peace with your body exactly as it is."

Substantia Jones, photographer and creator of The Adipositivity Project

Image: courtesy of Substantia Jones

"When determining New Year's resolutions, I'd like people to know about the studies that have found that making a weight goal part of any health goals is likely to monkey-wrench those health goals. I want folks to understand that even the $64 billion-a-year U.S. weight loss industry no longer disputes that their failure rate hovers around 95%.

"New Year's resolutions are bullshit. Why not choose goals that are not only more attainable, but also more beneficial? Commit to being honest and kind to everyone — including yourself — every day, not just the first few weeks of January. Promise yourself more belly laughs in 2016. More pleasure. More love. Your weight is not your worth."

Sonya Renee Taylor, poet, activist and founder of body positive movement The Body Is Not An Apology

Image: courtesy of Sonya Renee Taylor

"I want women to know they can revise the "New Year, New You" mantra to say "New Year, Same Me" — and that is more than enough. Our constant endeavor to become "new" often makes invisible to us all of the ways in which our current selves are magnificent.

"I want women to see the new year as an opportunity not to become some new person but instead to become more deeply in love with who they are today. We stop waiting to become as soon as we realize we already are."

Lindsey Averill, co-creator of the documentary Fattitude and fat activist

"The idea that thin equals a happier, better life is a scam — literally. It's an advertising ploy that convinces you to hand over your hard-earned dollars to the diet industry — an industry that sells lies and fail 95% of the time.

"Instead of focusing on what you feel you need to fix or something you hate about yourself, how about making a resolution to do something that helps you love yourself? Maybe something fun, like go dance once a week or take a drawing class or learn to knit or play the piano or learn to code so you can make your own badass app. Something — anything — that helps you realize that focusing on what makes you feel joy is way more fulfilling than resolving to torture and starve your body because you hate it.

"New year. Same you. Still awesome."