This is how far I am going to run next year. Exciting, no?
I was surfing around on the LA Marathon website and looking at training tips and I was pleasantly surprised by this:
"It may come as a surprise to the new runner to discover that there are
numerous training techniques, and even among coaches there is no clear
consensus as to which is the best one to follow." - LA Roadrunners Running and Training Terms and Methods
Why was I surprised? Why are so many new runners surprised? In our culture, we discuss fitness and health in weight related terms and in those terms there is no room for debate. Fat is unhealthy and thin is healthy. Take a look at a women's health magazine's website and count the number of articles about weight loss if you doubt me. Isn't this magazine supposed to be about health? Even if you assume that weight and health are connected (I don't and neither does Dr. Gaesser among others) aren't there conceivably some healthy women out there who are at the "correct" weight and would still like tips on healthy living?
I guess that is why the "health" section of the magazine is helpfully separated from the "weight loss" section. That is where I can find helpful articles like "Are you destined to inherit your mom's body shape?"
"Mom's overweight and you're hoping not to be? Find out how much control you have over your genes"
In this article you can helpfully read about how no matter how hard you work to lose weight and stay thin, you might be doomed to be a big failing fatty. I guess that is why you need to always be vigilant about losing weight. What is it that you call it when you spend all of your time thinking about food and how to lose weight? I feel like there is a word for the overwhelming fear that you will gain weight if you don't diet constantly. Hmmm...Fortunately even though your genes likely determine your size, they DON'T determine your health. A study on sedentary harvard alumni showed that taking up an active lifestyle decreased mortality EVEN WHEN NO WEIGHT WAS LOST. To quote my buddy Dr. Gaesser "Because alums who lost weight were no better off healthwise than those who did not lose weight, the reduction in all-cause death rate observed in the more physically active men was in no way attributable to slimming down."
So doctor's disagree about whether or not losing weight will improve general health. The good news is that they DO agree that increasing physical activity does make you healthier. So the moral of the story is that we should all stop feeling guilty, start treating ourselves and others with respect and love regardless of body size and type, and start enjoying a wide realm of physical activities. Go for a walk, go dancing, go jogging, ride your bike to work, make love, clean your house, whatever. Stop fighting an unwinnable war against your size, and start using your body for what it was meant for: living.
I agree, of course, that the link between weight loss and health is nowhere near as solid as the link between an active lifestyle and health, and that we as a culture should let that go. But I'm afraid that in focusing in on health we still risk putting a moral judgment on the ways people use their bodies -- still considering healthier people to be more morally upright even if we let go of our conception of thinner people as morally superior. I also suspect the former attitude leads to the latter. I agree that people should be encouraged to follow their joy, and that for many people incorporating more movement into their lives, for the sheer pleasure of it, will promote that. And I get that it does so for you, and I absolutely support you in celebrating that (and celebrate it myself, for you!) I certainly agree that people should be encouraged to let go of the idea that they're not allowed to move for pleasure, that they must do particular kinds of exercise and must do it to get thin. But for some people movement isn't a sheer pleasure. And I don't think we need a hierarchy there anymore than anywhere else. If someone really wants to sit on the couch eating potato chips and surfing the web all the time (to indulge an obvious stereotype), I think that's fine, too. I'd love to see these conversations leave space for all of those possibilities =)
ReplyDeleteThat is a really solid point. I realize now I hadn't mentioned this before in a post and I definitely need to. Our culture likes to pretend that we value health and life, but in reality we pick and chose what to value pretty arbitrarily. Why else would we consider it virtuous to overwork yourself at a stressful job to make lots of money, and shameful to live a leisurely lifetime of web surfing? I bet you dollars that web surfers with low levels of physical activity have fewer illnesses than cubicle dwellers with low levels of physical activity simply because they have less stress. Both choices are valid, and grown ups choose how to compromise their health or how not to based on what is the best for them. Thanks for bringing this up! Would you be interested in guest-posting about things here sometime? I'd love to have your input all official like on the front page :-)
ReplyDelete