Because time can be so slippery for me* I enjoy the idea of cut-and-dried time frames. I love weekly/monthly challenges and deadlines help me create the sort of urgency that helps me focus.
And while I am not all caught up in the ‘new year, new me’ thing, I do enjoy the fact that the changing of the year gives me a definite end/start point.
My current fitness objective is to create consistent, sustainable exercise practice. I am working on that now and I will continue to work on it in 2020.
While I haven’t set my first set of priorities yet, I know that strength training and practicing my patterns will fall in there somewhere.
My ADHD works against me in this goal. My inclination is to seek instant, visible results. To seek variety. To try to accomplish everything as once. To take on HUGE fitness projects. To switch gears frequently.
As I have noted in the 100 Day Reclaim posts, I am working on a number of ways to help me address those issues and I am trying to find the strengths in my ADHD programming – natural inclinations that will serve and support my fitness plans.
Since short-term challenges seem to be one of those inclinations, I am working them into my plans for the next while.
I’m not trying to plan a year of fitness activities, I’m working on something for the first 47 days of the year.
(I picked 47 because it’s my age and because it is an odd number that doesn’t add up to a specific number of weeks. That has a certain strange appeal to me.)
This way, I don’t have to try and see too far in advance. And I have a specific (and close) deadline. I can keep my time/activity experiments short and I can quickly change something that isn’t working.
I am still figuring out what I will focus on for the first session but I already feel better about selecting something because I know that I will a) only be prioritizing it for 47 days, not the whole year and b) I have a specific time when I will be starting the next thing, whatever that turns out to be.
How do you plan your next set of fitness challenges?
Do you have a time frame or a skills-based structure?
I’d love to hear about it, especially if you have ADHD and you have overcome the challenges of choosing a structure for improving your fitness levels.
*As I have mentioned before, ADHD gives me two time frames ‘now’ and ‘ not now’ and if I can’t cram something into ‘now’ then ‘not now’ could happen any time between the next hour and pretty much never. PS – I know these short work cycles are popular in a number of professions but I first heard about them from Basecamp’s Jason Fried on Jocelyn Glei’s Hurry Slowly podcast.
Catherine blogged about her most uncomfortable yoga poses and what she does instead. I’ve also become “that free spirit yoga lady” who just appears to be doing her own thing in yoga class. It’s winter and I’m back at hot yoga in a studio and despite all the talk of ‘only you know your body’ and ‘this is your practice’ I feel some pressure to go along with the sequence of poses.
I thought I’d share my recent yoga frustrations with you. Or when I’m in a mood, let’s just call it “my most hated yoga pose.” It’s Hero or Virasana. Here it’s described as balm for tired legs at the end of a long day but for me it’s just excruciating pain. Also, several physios and a knee surgeon or two have just out and out told me not to do it. So I don’t.
Searching for “hero pose” on Unsplash–a royalty free photo site–the best I got was this image. Not exactly what I had in mind!
Here’s Yoga with Adriene explaining how to set it up:
Knees are precious she tells us. Learn how to set up hero pose mindfully.
But the video also has the following text description:
” Yoga workshop! Learn the foundations of Hero Pose – or Virasana with Yoga With Adriene! Learn this delicate but powerful seated pose with at-home supports. No fancy yoga props needed. Learn to self adjust and use props intuitively and mindfully. Hero is a great stretch for the legs and feet. It can ground and calm the body with regular practice and help with digestion and bloating. Learn to explore a posture in a way that feels good. Avoid this posture if you have injury in the knee or ankle. “
The bold bit is mine.
And that’s the thing. No amount of modification will help. There is no right number of blocks, no proper arrangement of towels that will fix things.
Other poses are challenging–pigeon, child’s pose, bow–but I can find modifications that work. Not in this case and that’s okay. There is no way to make all the yoga poses work for every body despite what some yoga teachers seem to think.
Instead, you can find me off doing my own thing. And I’ll join you again for the next posture.
Is there a yoga pose that your body simply can’t do? No matter how many modifications? Make feel less alone here. Tell me your story. 🙂
I’ve done quite a few big things in my middle age meandering in the world of activity and fitness. When I was 35, I decided to do a C to 5K program. Let me be clear, I was really starting from the couch. There had been nothing aerobic in my life up to that point except maybe dancing. I was coasting on my youth and maybe also a little messed up from bad gym class experiences of childhood. I think it took me over a year to actually get up to 5K running and that felt HUGE. Little did I know where all that would lead me.
16 years later, I’m a person who has cycled from Toronto to Montreal a few times, run a half marathon, cycled up the coast of NFLD in adverse circumstances, hauled people all over Algonquin Park with a canoe on my head, rode a lot of horses, experimented with lifting heavy things and much more. Running 5K is a thing I could just do right now, if I wanted to. I’m super proud of all the big hard things I have done with this body, yet I am also aware that I’m not really chasing the next big thing. I hope there will be some things, I have some plans, but I’m more focused right now on the immediacy of moving and how it seriously doesn’t have to be much to make an impact.
One of the points of advice you read a lot on this blog is “find a thing you like to do and do that thing”. Think about it. Isn’t that the most delightful fitness advice ever? Isn’t it better than telling you that you are going to die young if you sit too much, or that you have to work out intensely 30 minutes a day or you will die young, or you will die young if you don’t walk fast enough, or any of the other sensational headlines around fitness that we are assaulted with constantly? Just find something small and do it.
The benefits of that became very alive in me last January, when I was doing Adriene’s 30 at home yoga thingy. I wrote about how I loved it here. None of those practices were over half an hour. Not many of them were particularly intense. It was the only exercise other than dog walking I was doing as I was in the middle of a life implosion and the respite of her daily uploads kept me from falling off a cliff. My osteopath was the person who commented that my musculature was “enlivened”. ENLIVENED! What more can you ask for, seriously?
Now, I did not continue to do yoga every day for the whole year. But, when I had no ability to do anything else and I needed to move, I would do a 15 minute practice and feel better. At this point in my life, exercise has to, at core, be about feeling better.
There was this piece carried by the CBC (Canadian national broadcaster) that impacted quite a few of us and I thought I might do a whole blog post about it but decided against it because, at the time, I was just angry. She is an Instagram star and I guess that’s how it got brought to their attention. The woman is 73 and she got fit (with the help of her daughter’s fitness program, which she is also clearly promoting) after getting fed up with herself at age 69. I heard her interviewed on the radio as well as reading the article and I was angry about it because it is a story of hating herself. She hated herself and then she went on a quest to find a solution. That solution came in the form of beating her 200lbs body down to 138lbs and then presenting herself to the world as finally acceptable. It is also the case that her other health markers improved which is awesome. My concern came in listening to her voice, where I heard vestiges of fear and self-hate looming to take her over the minute she lets up on her vigilance. She is so pleased to be able to “look at herself in the mirror”, yet it comes with the fear of loss if she doesn’t keep going big. This just isn’t the kind of fitness I’m interested in. I’m not blaming this iron pumping grandma for her fear fuelled odyssey. What I really want for her is to find out why the journey didn’t lead her away from that lingering body hatred. The virtue of movement is not only found in suffering. In fact, I think if it is only about pushing and suffering and achieving, we are doomed.
I am counting down the days (6 left!) to the New Year and another 30 day Adriene yoga thingy. I’ve been brushing up with doing more at home practice when I can and I feel better every single time. I’m also eating a lot of cookies and walking my dog all over the country side. Life is lovely at last, my implosion having settled, and adventures are coming my way. I hope you can find a small thing to do when big feels beyond you, and love yourself while you do it.
Shelby the Holiday Pupper thinks you are awesome and should go do some at home yoga only after you give her some cheese.
I saw Knives Out with family members on Boxing Day and was struck by one of the government ads that ran before the show.
It started like a pumped up motivational sports video with lots of young women athletes. I like those! Except about halfway through I started to think they were getting injured a lot. And then the message changed.
I wish we knew more about young women and concussions. I’m often struck by how much we worry about young men and football when women who play soccer also have a serious risk of traumatic brain injury. There’s also the concussions dangers in figure skating and cheerleading, because no helmets for aesthetics reasons.
I’m writing this blog on Christmas afternoon while the rest of my family is either napping or gaming. It’s been a great day– gifts and food and family and kids and selfies with my mom, which I showed her how to do and send to others on her new iPhone. I may live to regret this… 🙂
It’s been really nice to receive gifts from folks. I got a new groovy bluetooth speaker (in red!), baking accoutrement (in honor of my late-to-the-party-but-sincere love of the Great British Baking Show), and assorted other fun or useful items. I love giving gifts too. My 14-year-old nephew got one of the xkcd comics guy books–What if? from me, which I think will help him cultivate his excellent geeky side.
Apart from things, though, the gifts I am giving my family this year are: 1) passports for everybody so we can travel outside the US this summer (watch out Canadian friends– we’re headed to Ontario in August!); and 2) experiences involving fun to be had together. We are headed to the beach in South Carolina for a few days, to ride bikes, swim in an indoor pool, eat copious amounts at a breakfast buffet, walk on the beach, play games, snooze, and make idle chit chat.
Yes, all this may seem altruistic, but it’s really a gift to myself. Why? Because I’m in a stage of life where I want to spend quality time with family and friends when I can. This means cycling trips, beach trips, book club weekends, family vacations, and combining conferences with active fun (preferably on two wheels) whenever possible.
So my big gift to myself this year was spending money and time on being places with people I care about, doing activities that are fun and offer us ways to deepen our relationships with one another. Like on these trips:
Floating like lumps on a log in a Sedona swimming hole with Leah.
Taking a baking break at the saunas at Spa Castle in Dallas with Alida.
Silly walking on the jetty in Gloucester with Gray.
2020 promises to be a good year in one big way. As of Feb 1, I will no longer be doing two very big volunteer service jobs– member of my university’s tenure committee and co-warden of my Episcopal church. Both have been time-consuming, important, and rewarding. Stepping down from them will open up a lot of practical and psychic space for me. This presents an opportunity for me to turn back to my own life to see what I want. And what do I want for me, from me in 2020?
strength training: I did a bit of it in 2019, and I purchased an online 12-week program, which I started, but didn’t follow up on. I’ll resume that program, and start looking around for weight training classes.
saddle time: I set up my bike trainer before I left for the holidays. Now I’d like to use it. Lately I’ve found myself shying away from riding in cold weather. Yes, I’ve got the gear. Yes, I’ve got friends to ride with. But if all that doesn’t get me out the door, there’s always the trainer. In the past, I’ve found short workouts (30 mins or so) to be pretty satisfying. Let’s see if I can give myself the time and focus to do that again.
cooking on the weekends: I love it when I have ready-made lunches and some dinners in my fridge and freezer Sunday night. Sundays became work days for me this year as warden (horrible term, but it just means you’re keeping lots of things running smoothly at church). When I got home, I was depleted. What I want to give myself is more time to spend on things I love to do for myself, for my house, for my body, for my friends, etc. Preparing and eating happily and healthily-to-me lays a foundation for everything else.
I don’t think this self-gift list for 2020 is too much. I’ll be reporting back from time to time on how I’m doing. Let me know what you might like for yourself in 2020; we’d like to hear how you’re doing, too.
Oh– one last thing; I’d like a Bianchi e-road bike.
I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. Whatever that means for you. Hopefully there is delicious food in your belly, a warm place to snuggle another human or loved pet. As we near the end of 2019, and we are about to start 2020, the barrage of resolution inspiration is tangible. I’m sure I am not alone in thinking about what resolutions mean to me.
When I was a guest poster on Fit is a Feminist Issue, I wrote this Sweet Things post, where I talk about there being something enticing about marking the beginning of something. I talk about the sweet things I wish for myself in the coming year (on the Jewish Calendar), including: patience, “Don’t mess with me vibe”, Focus, Contentment, Indifference, Less Fear, and Gratitude. These are the kinds of things I like to think about as a new beginning is marked on a calendar.
I am not one to make a list of resolutions I’d like to keep for the year ahead. Mostly because I like to think of goals I have for myself on a regular basis, not only at one time of year. I’m not a fan of the idea that if you don’t resolve to make changes in a specific period of time, you will lose your window of opportunity to do so.
Also, rigid rules and lists don’t work for me. The same way rigid calorie counting, weighing myself regularly, detoxes, and the like, do not work for me. I am more inclined to make small changes in areas that are important to me, until they stick and become regular habits. Also, to me, wellness and health are more about mental health, physical strength and healthy mobility, than what size I am at any given time.
In my late 40s, I want to focus on what I want to accomplish in this life, whether in my career, or in relation to what type of wife, daughter, cousin, friend, co-worker, I want to be.
Currently, a few things I would like to focus on in 2020 are:
Feeling more Confident: a colleague gave me a mug for a festive mug exchange at work that says “Boss Lady”. She said she gave it to me because I exude calm, cool, boss lady vibes. I do not feel like this most of the time, particularly in a 6 month old job, where I am not a “subject matter expert” in the way I was in my previous jobs (for the past 20 years). Nor do I feel I have a lot of opportunity to be in a “Boss Lady” type of position at this stage of my career. Although, I think It’s more about a vibe in all one does, than about a particular position, and the compliment (and mug) gave me confidence to See it. Hear it. Be it. Particularly because the woman who gave it to me does actually seem like a Boss Lady to me. So, it’s an inspirational gift. I would like to feel that I exude the confidence that others apparently see in me on occasion. This sense of confidence can extend to my workouts.
Better Emotional Intelligence: In this I mean I would like to have the ability to be assertive without being emotional or worried about how my assertion will be received. If anyone has any tips, I would love to receive them. I admire this quality in others, but do not feel I achieve this when I am feeling most vulnerable.
More Energy: I often feel I am inexplicably tired late in the day. I regularly get 7 hours of good sleep. I exercise, take my vitamins, etc. But I would love to figure out how to have more energy (without too much coffee) in everyday life.
A Miracle: I would really welcome a positive turn of events with a family member. There are some events in life where we find we have less control than we would like, to shape how things are unfolding. In these situations all we can do is hope there are other forces that can help turn things around. I hope for such a turn around in the coming year. I know I am being vague, but this is just something I would like to put out in the world, without providing too much detail.
I would also like to take stock at the end of the year about the areas in my life where I feel gratitude. A year’s worth of energetic workouts at a gym I love (hey Move!), a completed half marathon, many great, meditative solo jogs, and great training runs with my friend/neighbor Mark, and his dog Tango (Tango can be a good pace setter at times). The privilege of another year around the sun. I got married! I have the most supportive, loving, husband, who is also my best friend. There was a time in my life where this event seemed completely unlikely. I am grateful for my daily snuggles with my two dogs, bad breath and all (I am a terrible doggie Mom, when it comes to dog dental hygiene). I am grateful for my supportive and loving family and my close and wonderful friends. I hope everyone finds what they are looking for in 2020. Do you have things you wish for that you would like to say out loud and share?
Nicole Plotkin is a law clerk who works out regularly, enjoys food in all forms, enjoys time with her husband, family, friends and two dogs.
I announced on the blog and on Facebook that I passed my cycling instructor written exam. There are no comments on the blog or on our Facebook page asking WHY but there are in my inbox.
Friends ask, aren’t you busy enough? Why teach indoor cycling (aka “spin”)? It’s not like you need a side hustle. Also, ask my serious cycling friends, don’t you hate spin? I see you out there in Zwift. You’re riding your real bike on a trainer with internet connectivity and a power meter. And that’s true. I love Zwift and sprinting. I have my eyes on Zwift racing even. With the world as my oyster it’s easier to find women my age racing bikes.
But still I want to teach indoor cycling. And I really like it. I take classes pretty regularly even though I also ride my real bike in the virtual worlds provided by Zwift.
Here’s my “why” story.
First, it’s been something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile. It was actually a thing I’d planned to do during the fittest by fifty challenge but life got in the way. I feel like it’s time.
Second, it feels like a natural transition, moving to the front of the room. I’ve participated in lots of different styles of indoor cycling classes and I have opinions. I’m excited about leading and about teaching.
Third, I often lament the lack of diversity in fitness instructors. So many conventionally attractive, thin people in their early twenties. Nothing wrong with that but I think I have something different to offer. Would I teach LGBTQ community fitness classes? Plus sized fitness classes? Sure. But I’m also happy to put myself out there in the mainstream fitness context too.
Fourth, back when the blog started I used to run in addition to riding my bike. With my knee in the state it’s in, even walking is a challenge. I’m relying more on cycling for fitness and in the winter that means some pretty regular time riding inside.
Fifth, I’ve had a change in fitness community from London to Guelph. I hope taking on ‘learning to teach” will connect me a bit to the fitness world here.
Sixth, I think teaching indoor cycling will see me well into my sixties and beyond. I feel like I have lots of experience and a good attitude. I have fun riding inside and want to share my joy in movement with others.
Catherine: Full disclosure: I am writing these responses from the comfort and chaos of my aunt’s house, where a bunch of us have gathered before Christmas. My sister keeps showing me Instagram photos of undecorated Christmas trees and posts predicting the outcomes of holiday football games. Kiwi the dog just wants love. All the love I have to give. Now.
(a few minutes later…) I’ve settled into the breakfast room, where the heckling is at least in the background.
Some of these readings—from days 21 through 30—are especially apt this week for me. Day 23 is about the power of a pause—the space between stimulus and response. Nia advises grabbing that moment and choosing what you really want to do. I have a different idea: just notice the moment itself. Let it be there, and watch it as it unfolds into the next one. For me, pauses allow me to gather myself to myself—to look around and see where I am and how I am. It seems passive, but it’s in fact investigative. I want to feel and experience and come to know what’s going on. Yes, I’ll make choices. Yes, I’ll have feelings about those choices. But for me, a modicum of freedom, or rather, ease, comes with noticing the spaces in between.
Last Saturday I took a 2-hour pranayama yoga workshop, focused on breathing. We did move a fair bit, but all in service of noticing how different poses opened the chest and changed the quality of our breathing. It was an exercise in noticing the pauses—in between breaths, and also after the in-breath and after the out-breath. I love those pauses. It’s not about holding, but about being quiet or still in those moments. This is why I do yoga—for the power of those pauses.
Day 30—when it all goes up in flames—is particularly relevant for me this holiday, too. Some of my family are going through painful changes, and experiencing the uncertainty that comes before, during and after every step of that change process. I’m standing by, witnessing. It’s not yet time to step in and reframe the change, although in better moments we do talk about new possibilities and new directions.
So, it’s back to the pause. That’s all we can do sometimes. But we can do that. It gives me heart, and I hope it helps those of you who are going through hard times or who love people who are going through hard times. Thanks, Nia.
Christine: I found Days 21-30 very intriguing and there are a lot of things for me to think about in here.
The message I received from 8 of the entries was about the power of choice – choosing your perspective, choosing your mindset, making choices that support you in the kind of life that you want to live.
Whether she was talking about noticing why you do certain things and then making a conscious choice to behave differently (Day 21), choosing an approach that you can do daily for a long period of time (Day 26), choosing not to focus on appearance as your ‘after’ (Day 27), or using a food journal to notice patterns in your eating – for example, if skipping breakfast makes you snack all day (Day 28), she really calls our attention to how much we can apply the power of choice when we are trying to move forward in our fitness journeys.
While I enjoyed the sections about choices, the two sections that really address my main challenges were Day 24 (If it is important, it will take time.) and Day 29 (What do you need to do next?)
Because my ADHD leads me to think of time in terms of Now and Not Now, I want to be able to start and complete my fitness journey(s) in as short a time as possible. I’m always nervous about something dropping off my radar so when something is important to me, I want to do it all right now, in one fell swoop. Of course, that’s not how fitness works, it’s an incremental process. So, anything that gets me thinking about how to keep a slow, steady pace is inherently valuable to me.
Another challenge that arise from a combination of my ADHD and my personality is the need to make the RIGHT choice that will DEFINITELY lead to where I want to go. Because time is so slippery for me and because breaking projects into chunks is difficult, I tend to seek more certainty than the average person does. This can lead to a lot of overthinking and overanalyzing. I really welcome Shanks’ reminder to stop trying to think my way out of it and instead find the next action I can take.
That ‘next’ is really important to me because it helps me remember that I am not trying to solve the problem with one step. I don’t have to find the perfect thing to do. I just have to take a single step forward toward my objectives.
I think this was my favourite part of the book so far.
Sam: I liked Nia’s Day 24 focus on patience, the idea of settling in for the long haul. Fitness, like most things in life worth wanting, takes time. If you’re too focused on the outcome you’re bound to get frustrated. Instead, you need to enjoy the process. Day 25 continues on that theme urging us not to make our happiness conditional on achieving the big goal we’ve set for ourselves. Choose to make each workout its own reward. (Lately I’ve struggled with this because some of what I need to do to stay active is just annoying! There’s no joy in toe physio. ) Day 27 talks about the kind of goals worth setting and what that means for “before and after.” So many women think about fitness before and after in terms of looks, whether that’s muscle development or looking thin. Nia suggests we expand our range of goals and instead think about getting stronger, increased bone density, having a better relationship with food, and having greater self-confidence. This section ends with another non-traditional food challenge. Instead of all or nothing diet thinking, Nia’s recommendation is simple. She asks us to look for small improvements we can make in the way we eat.
In October I took a day long course at the University of Guelph as part of the process of becoming an indoor cycling instructor.
“The University of Guelph has developed its own Group Cycle Certification course. The principles of conditioning will be applied by incorporating details around set-up, class format, applied anatomy and kinesiology. Learn the do’s and don’ts, precautions of cycling and the basics to coaching participants through this type of workout. Certification includes a written exam and a practical assessment to be booked for a later date.”
It was a fun day that ended in each of us taking turns leading the class in a workout, a one song drill, that applied one of the techniques we’d been learning about.
What else to tell you about it? It was a mix of small group instruction in a seminar room and practical instruction on the bikes. We learned some stuff and then sat in on an indoor cycling class to see the theory in action and hear the instructor cue the class in the ways we’d just learned about. We also learned some exercise theory, some things specific to indoor cycling, and practical things about the bikes. I wasn’t even the oldest person in the class and the instructor wasn’t a twenty-something either. (Not that age matters but I was feeling a bit sensitive about the whole thing.)
Oh, we also learned that we couldn’t ever call indoor cycling “spinning.” It turns out that Johnny G has that term trade-marked. “Mad Dogg chases down countless companies, demanding they instead replace “spin” with the term “indoor cycling.” Somehow, “spin” does not fall under the same guideline as “Pilates,” “yoga,” and “karate,” which, according to an October 2000 Manhattan federal court decision, are considered exercise methods and cannot be trademarked. “
I did my section to this song, Pink’s Raise Your Glass. My drill included fast, flat road spinning, go fast intervals with time for recovery. It turns out that I was happy at the front of the room. I smiled and called out instructions. I succeeded at the timing. And I was okay talking with a wireless mic while breathless. (I was worried about that.) In many ways none of this should have surprised me. I’ve been taking indoor cycling classes for a very long time. I’ve even had a chance at the front of the room in Coach Chris’s basement when his regular trainer class assistant was away. I’ve also been teaching in a university context for more than 30 years (yikes!) and I’m pretty comfortable in that role.
But for some reason, the written exam–which came later–had me very nervous. First, I couldn’t write with the rest of the class because of my schedule (#deanslife, #senate.) Second, it’s been a long time since I was the person writing, not grading, an exam. I did write an exam, I think, or at least I took a course, when I became a foster parent. But that was many years ago. We had covered a lot of info during the class–so many muscles, so many different exercise theory principles–and I wasn’t sure what would be on it. I ended up writing on my own on a Monday afternoon in an office at the university fitness centre.
It was super hard hand writing an exam. I realized a few minutes in how little I do that these days. My handwriting is not the easiest to read! I wasn’t sure how much information to include. I apologized when I handed it in. The exam covered a lot of material–some muscles, some exercise principles, workout design, and bike set up. I finished early but then weeks passed and I didn’t hear. What if I failed? What if they were too embarrassed to tell a dean she’d failed an exam? Could I take it again? Fretting happened. Finally, recently, I heard, I passed. 88%. Woo hoo!
In the new year, I’ll be taking part in their cycling instructor mentorship program. I think I’ll sit in on some of the classes taught by the person who taught the cycling instructor class. She’s pretty terrific. High energy, tons of experience, and seems to really care about the quality of instruction at the university.
“You’ve taken the course but now need to hone your skills through some supervised ‘hands on’ teaching before you attempt your practical? Let us help you. This membership will give you access to all our cycle classes (providing space is available) and an opportunity to apprentice and team-teach with our instructors. Weekly feedback will be provided in order to assist you in preparation for the practical. “
After that, I teach a full class on my own for the practical exam. I’ll have to find friends to come and take a class from me. Watch out Fit is a Feminist Issue community, I might hit you up!
It’s that time of year where unsuspecting yogis or gym goers can be subjected to diet culture (not quite as bad as what’s to come in January, but still a risk) in class. It just slides into the running commentary that instructors need to maintain to keep the class moving along.
This happened to me the other day in yoga. I’ve been unable to run for a couple of months, so I’ve been going to hot yoga every day instead. It’s been a nice change (though I’m dying to get back to running). I’ve been a member at the same studio for at least a decade and I honestly have never experienced the normalization of diet culture there. But that commendable streak came to an end the other day when, in order to motivate a longer hold of a strenuous pose, the instructor said, “work off all that holiday baking!”
“Say what?” She lost me right then and there. I went back and forth in my head about whether I was overreacting. Despite that I don’t blog regularly here anymore, seven years as a feminist fitness blogger has given me a certain perspective and a keen awareness of nonsense that sucks the joy out of our workouts and replaces it with the suggestion that we need to whip our overindulgent selves into shape. I object!
I spent the rest of the class asking myself “do I say something or let it go?” On the side of letting it go: I know she meant it as a light-hearted comment. On the side of saying something: that’s how diet culture gets perpetuated; the yoga studio is the last place I expect to hear it; I’m probably not the only one who felt uncomfortable with the comment.
After my shower I approached the instructor. I had already decided to be nice about it. I love the studio and as I said it’s not a place I normally experience body shaming or anything other than body positivity. Definitely the comment was the exception not the rule.
Me: It was a good class but I have some feedback.
Instructor: Yes.
Me: I didn’t appreciate the comment about the holiday baking. I don’t come here to hear that sort of thing.
Instructor: I know! I’m sorry. The minute it came out of my mouth I knew I shouldn’t have said it. But I didn’t know how to take it back.
Me: That’s reassuring. Thanks for telling me that.
Instructor: Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it and I’m glad you felt able to express it.
I consider that a good news story. Instead of stewing in my juices, I opened up a dialogue. That yielded a shared understanding and also a willingness on the instructor’s part to do better in the future.
Using workouts to “deal with” holiday baking is a pretty normal message that is firmly entrenched in normalized diet culture. For most people it is just the way it is. But that’s not what we promote here. And it’s not what anyone who cares about body positivity and more self-nurturing motivations for our fitness pursuits should be promoting either.
I’m glad I said something. And I’m really relieved the instructor “got it” before I even opened my mouth.
