Wednesday, August 14, 2013

As It Stands: You’re not going to get me to lose weight by humilating me!

Good Day World!

Some people mean well. For example, those enthusiastic advocates of fitness who tell us to get off of our lazy asses and to work out.

We are an obese nation these days. No doubt about it. Having said that, I don’t believe you’re going to help someone by humiliating them and expecting them to do something beyond their physical capabilities. 

Enter the motivation gurus who come up with all kinds of cute little exercise routines that are about as useful as quicksand in your front yard! We are not all created equally. Those skinny guys and gals who prance around on our TVs demonstrating the surefire way to fitness are already fit. Get it?

They don’t need the exercise but we’re supposed to think we’re going to look like them if we do everything instructed. Regardless of our body type. That’s about as realistic as believing politicians really work to serve people!

Throw in the products touted by these phys-ed fanatics and you’re bound to be the next Hulk Hogan or Gywneth Paltrow! False promises, I tell you! It’s deceiving to make people think they can miraculously transform their body into a hunk or hunkette.

I’m not saying we don’t need to exercise. We do. But within our physical realities. For some, that just means walking 20 minutes a day. Goading people to perform physical acts with smart ass memes and quotes is not productive…it’s elitist and unrealistic.

I suppose those who are fit enough to enjoy being challenged like this find the popular “get fit” memes and quotes fun. I’m happy for them. But I can tell you right now, humiliating me for the sake of motivation is the wrong way to go.

The following article is what set me off on this rant:  

“So you’re on the couch entering hour three of a Pinterest binge. This is a time when you probably could use a little motivation to get yourself to finally log off and drag your butt to the gym.

That’s essentially the point of “fitspiration” – a cutesy, Internetty term for images and slogans meant to inspire people to meet their fitness goals, hundreds of which are posted and pinned every day on image-heavy social media sites like Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram.

And a lot of “fitspo,” as it’s nicknamed, does a great job of doing what it’s intended to do: inspire people to get and stay fit, say body image experts and fitness bloggers.

But mixed right into those healthy messages are also some sneakily harmful underlying themes. “A lot of these things are very reasonable -- they say things like ‘Just start,’” says David LaPorte, a psychologist at Indiana University of Pennsylvania who has studied body image and social media. “Or, I love this one: ‘Failure isn’t falling down; it’s refusing to get back up.’

“The trouble is when you surround all those good messages with images of people that are unattainable for most women, quite frankly,” he says.” Read story here

Time for me to walk on down the road…

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