Thursday, January 26, 2012

Does your mother know that you are doing this?


Hi.
I'm a Fitness Instructor.

If you didn't know by now, then we should talk more often.
I've been doing for the past two years and it is amazing.

I love exercising and I love teaching.

One thing that I don't love is the social pressure that women feel to 
look like something
eat certain things
and even create exercise habits.

I'm not talking about the kind invitation to go out on bike rides
or come to the gym to try a new class.

I'm talking about the extremes.
Let me describe one for you.

Stumbled upon a "health and fitness" blog today.
I used the quotation marks because the bulk of the content consists of fad dieting, 
downloading home exercise videos (can we say Copyright Infringement?)
 and quotes about how people who more than 120 lbs are abusing their bodies.

I was pretty disgusted by two things: 
the lack of compassion (or was is maturity) in the posts and 
her misuse of punctuation.

That's not even the worst part.

It's written by a barely 16 year-old girl.
16.
That explains the lack of maturity. Sadly, some people don't have that excuse.
barely 16.
That explains the punctuation....kinda.

But let's go back to my title.

Does you mother know that you are doing this?
Does she have poor self body image too?

Holy Cow, people!
Did you know that there is more to people that what they look like?
And even if you are "thin and slim" that doesn't make you a well-rounded person.
No pun intended.

Now I'm not saying that you should give up any healthy endeavors and camp out at your favorite fast food restaurant.
Eating well and exercising IS important.

But that doesn't mean that you can't have a cupcake once in a while!

And Scene.


P.S. I refuse to put a link to this blog because I won't advertise such garbage... I'll just complain about it.

4 comments:

Natalia said...

Yikes. When I see the current generation, the way they speak, the way the dress, the way they think about themselves and others, I can't help but hope that my daughter does not end up that way.

Nicole said...

Amen, sister! That really is too bad....SAD really. But It think most of us would agree with you. Slim doesn't always = healthy either. Skinny or not, exercise and healthy eating is still important. And if I didn't allow myself the occasional sweet, I think I'd be a grump. : )

P.S. I always thought it would be fun to be a fitness instructor. I totally understand why you love your job.
P.P.S. I haven't updated my health blog in a while. I should get back into it.

Carrie said...

Ugh! I hear you! As a dietitian (even though I've never actually worked in the field) it makes me sick when people talk about fad dieting and "cleansing" diets. Plus, even if you are trim and thin, it says NOTHING about health (blood cholesterol, etc). Okay, I'm stopping now before I blow a gasket. You have every right to be super angry about this.

Jewels said...

Yay for righteous anger. Glad you didn't post the link, because I would've went there, read it, been insanely outraged and possibly left some very nasty comments. I'm so glad there are people like you out there with knowledge and common sense. Not to mention decent punctuation. :)