Occasionally, you come across someone in the blogosphere whose vibe is so close to your own that regular readers wonder if one of the Fit is a Feminist Issue blog team was the author of her posts. In this case, no, we did not. But we’re big fans of the Fat Nutritionist and I love her recent posts on the connection between her fat acceptance journey and becoming a jock.
Of all the things blog-associated that I strongly believe, one that’s near the top of the list were I to make such a list–is that we’d all be better off if we ditched the association between physical activity and weight loss.
Breaking the association between working out and losing weight is better for thin people who might mistakenly think they don’t need to workout because they are already thin. It’s better for fat people who work out and then quit because they don’t lose weight thereby missing out on all the other health benefits of exercise. These days I’ve been thinking that it’s especially better for aging women who are already at risk of muscle and bone loss with age and for whom weight loss without strength training is particularly dangerous.
Okay, back to the Fat Nutritionist and how giving up on weight loss helped her rediscover the joy of movement.
Here’s the Fat Nutritionist in her own words: “‘I did not think all this would happen when I decided to accept myself as a fat person and stop dieting in November 2000. I just wanted to experience peace in my body, stop caring so much about how I looked, stop experiencing the intense shame that I’d been taught to feel about my weight, and the guilt and confusion around food that came with it. I had no idea I was an athlete; I had no desire to become one. But somehow, learning to treat myself and my body with compassion allowed me to learn things about myself that had been hidden for years, decades. As it turns out, I’m a small-time thrill-seeker, a diver, a skater, a cyclist. I’m still fat. Hills are hard, but I descend like a beast.”
Here are her blog posts about walking, skating, and cycling:
Who is the Fat Nutritionist? Her name is Michelle and she describes herself as “a fat lady who is also a registered dietitian.”
Here’s the more formal bit: “I am a registered dietitian with the College of Dietitians of Ontario. I have an accredited degree (BASc) in nutrition from Ryerson University. I work online to help people stop dieting, deal with picky eating, and relearn normal eating.“