“New Year, New You”-No Thanks
I always find this time of year to be a good time for reflection, to look back over the past year, and to look forward to directing my energy in guiding the path ahead. I write a list of accomplishments and gratitude from the past year, and then I write a business plan for myself of three goals each of personal, business, and health categories of what I want for the next year, five years, and ten years along. I started doing this a few years ago, and I find it a really beneficial practice at the beginning of each January to direct focus, brainstorm, and reflect.
However, I don't believe in new year's resolutions or in setting new year's intentions. Some could argue that what I wrote above is about setting intentions for the year, and I could agree. Yet what I don't like about the idea of resolutions and intentions is that they can be intimidating and stressful, promoting a belief that we have to have everything set on January 1 in order for the rest of the year to be perfect and achieve all our goals. It is helpful to set goals at certain times to guide our decisions and actions, but we can start and stop whenever it works for us. There is no need to anxiously have everything figured out at the beginning of the year, and there is no reason for judgment if we misstep or make mistakes for our new goals along the way. Everything changes over time, and we can adjust as needed.
I especially get tired of new year's resolutions marketing in the fitness industry. As a professional in the fitness and wellness industry, I feel like many trainers and coaches use the new year as a way to sell more classes, products, and memberships. If a client feels like it's beneficial to be pushed to look a certain way and "new year, new you" helps motivate them, that's perfectly alright. But, for the majority of people, seeing skinny, muscled trainers pushing for new diets and intense exercise routines with statements of "getting your new year's body" and "losing that quarantine weight", feels uncomfortable, intimidating, and triggering. This type of marketing continues perpetuating the "skinny is healthy" mindset, which is inaccurate and harmful. The skinny, diet culture actually stems from racism and sexism of the early 1900s to maintain control over women, and to accentuate class differences between White and Black people (recommended reading for this topic if you're interested "Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia" by Sabrina Strings). By continuing to promote this thinking, we are complicit in promoting sexism and racism; we are promoting an industry based on peoples' insecurities. The fitness industry wants to keep people feeling inadequate in order to sell more based on the idea that if I am a certain weight or look a certain way then I'll finally be happy.
That being said, it is perfectly fine to want to look a certain way if we want to do so for ourselves, but let's ask if it really is for us, or if we have a certain idea of how we're "supposed" to look because it has been promoted constantly in our culture and media, bombarding us from a young age. Yes, as we all know there is a range of bodyweight that tends to be healthier in order to reduce comorbidities from other diseases and injuries, but this range of what healthy actually is, is quite a large range. We all have body rolls, there will be creases and folds and skin that we can grab and jiggle, cellulite, and marks, and parts of our bodies that wiggle. It's okay, and the lack of these rolls and wiggles does not mean we are necessarily healthy or happy.
At the same time, that doesn't mean I don’t promote exercise practices for health, but there are other ways to measure health than simply by body weight.
I believe in participating in daily movement in order to mobilize joints, to strengthen muscles, to be able to move through life mostly pain-free and capable and to invigorate the body and mind. What I don't believe in is to exercise in order to look a certain way. The reason I'm so passionate about exercise is that I know how much better I feel with it in my life, and I know my clients always feel better after their sessions. By incorporating consistent movement in our lives we naturally feel better, move better, feel stronger, and yes, perhaps our weight will change. But I do not promote exercise in order to help people lose weight. Sometimes, when a person starts working out more their weight will even increase as muscle mass, hydration, and other measurements change, which shows how the number on the scale is not a direct measurement of fitness or health.
Exercise is my self-care. It's how I reduce stress and anxiety, minimize pain from old chronic injuries, and feel energized, content, and centered. I use it as a moving meditation, focusing on the moment, feeling sensations, noticing thoughts arising. Even back as a young dancer, I loved working at the Barre because I could simply focus on the moment, focus on the choreography, listen to the accompaniment music, feel my body moving.
I believe in daily movement in whatever way feels good to each person's individual body, finding what inspires that individual to move more in their life to feel their best. I continue to promote Anti-Diet Culture and The Body Liberation Project to encourage the fitness and wellness industry to be more inclusive. It won't happen quickly, but small steps consistently over time to promote big, positive changes.
Until then, cheers to a New Year, hoping for health and wellness in whatever size we are! Find whatever movement routine feels good for you, and remember to take time to rest.
Do what moves You.
#Anti-diet #BodyLiberation #NoNewYearResolutions