So lately I do exercises in the house, if I haven’t had a chance to run in a while. Wall sit, burpees, jumping jacks, high knees, mountain climbers, lift my little 5lb weights, do a barre video, lunges, some yoga stretches – whatever. A little 20-30 minute fix. I prefer a longer workout, but most days you take what you can get.
I’m on pinterest and I’ve recently pinned a few of those “do these exercises at home for 5 minutes a day and you’ll lose a million pounds in a month” type things. Not because I expect to lose a million pounds in a month, but they’re something to follow, a good little list of stuff to do. They usually have a hot twenty-something with washboard abs and a perky butt modeling each exercise.
So I’m doing some tonight, because it’s raining and I can’t run outside, and I caught sight of myself in the full length mirror in our front hall. It was really depressing – I looked so giant and gross. Which is when I realized what every social science study on the topic will already tell you – looking at sporty skinny models actually demotivates and depresses. On days when I’ve gone on a run and then walk by the mirror, I look pretty sporty and great if I do say so myself. On days when I look first at a bunch of lean young models and then look at myself sweating through some burpees, all I see is how spectacularly far I am from that so-called “ideal.” I feel really defeated and am tempted to just quit and eat ice cream.
Then I thought about how Cheryl Tiegs says that letting a plus size model be in a swimsuit edition of a sports magazine makes us all feel like it’s ok to be fat, and sends a message that it’s ok to let ourselves go, which further encourages obesity – but really, it’s CHERYL and Cheryl-looking folks that encourage fat, because looking at today’s version of Cheryl Tiegs (who I’m sure worked very hard but also had some help from the genes) makes me want to quit. The (slightly, not even very) fat woman in the bikini actually makes me feel pretty awesome, because she looks great and even though she’s an ideal I’d never reach either, she’s still not starving. Ugh, food and eating and body image is such a sneaky little devil, I tell you.
What I’d really love is a motivational graphic next to my list of tasks (40 kettlebells! 20 push ups!) that has a woman approaching 40, running to fat, loose chin and round cheeks . . . who has worked an 11 hour day, bookended by needy children needing fed and clothed (breakfast and school clothes in the a.m., dinner and pjs in the p.m.), who’s squeezed in a load of dishes and laundry, who has a couple of hours of work to do that night, and yet she nudged aside the Cheerio crumbs and piles of toy clutter to make room for twenty minutes of lunges in between kid-bedtime and opening the work laptop. I mean, that may not be a six-pack ab situation but it’s pretty darn motivating.
It’s not a new topic, but a genuine desire – I wonder if there’s a Chrome extension that replaces impossibly hot women in exercise graphics with paunchy soccer moms?
I wonder if this is why, when I watch The Biggest Loser (not something I do regularly), I invariably want to eat ice cream or cookies or such…because I’m never going to be whisked away to a ranch where I workout four hours a day while experts yell at me, and eat food someone else prepares (not that I want to, mind you, but it would certainly be more effective than my current regime). I’m always way more inspired when I see the same neighbor jogging around the arroyo most days than by any of the scaryfit perfect people trying to sell me stuff.
Love the post and a Anna’s comment–I, too, am inspired by seeing the same real-life neighbors out there walking or running the neighborhood day after day.
One of the things that I love about going running in the big parks in New York City (Riverside, Prospect Park, etc) is that while yes, there are some super hot, super fit people wearing super expensive gear, there are so many more regular folks who are out there exercising. Walking, running, biking, whatever, just out in the fresh air moving their bodies. Women in hijab, Orthodox Jewish women in long skirts and power sneakers, 30-something black women with t-shirts that say “Black girls run,” heavy people, wiry people, nobody really cares what anybody else looks like because again, just out in the fresh air moving their bodies. I found it so much more motivating and liberating than going to a gym or somewhere where the vibe is about a certain physical ideal rather than simple health through movement.
Also, I am SO impressed (and inspired) by the fact that you are exercising at home at night. I have only one kid and a job that’s not as demanding as a firm job, and the only exercise I can manage these days is my walk from home to subway and subway to office and back again. You are amazing, you are sporty and great, and if I had any computer skillz at all, I would make you that Chrome extension in a heartbeat!