There’s this gym I often run by that almost always has an eye-catching sign up front. During the bleak fall days, right before Thanksgiving, the cheerful advertisement was inviting people to come exercise so they could feast without guilt later. Right now, the bright-colored sign is trying to lure people in with a promise to help them get “beach bodies.”
The first time around, I just rolled my eyes: Shaming people for eating is wrong, and so is creating this negative association with exercise. But the current sign made me straight-out furious. Not only is every body a beach body, but the gym is sending out a message that exercise is a tool for manipulating our body shapes, and worse, that exercise is a punishment for enjoying food.
“It gives the message that you’re not good enough the way you are and that in order to be lovable, or acceptable, you need to have this perfect beach body,” says Nancy Clark M.S., R.D., C.S.S.D., a sports nutritionist and author of Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook, based in Newton, Massachusetts. “Every body is a beautiful body.”
This is just one of the reasons exercise feels like a chore to some people and an activity associated with negative feelings for others. So let’s talk about how to break away from that mindset and make exercise a positive experience.