Yogaland offers sanctuary to refugees from Weightlossland

[resonant]

Our gym has its own version of The Greatest Loser, so every time I go to a yoga class, I'm greeted by the sight of groups of fat people in matching T-shirts being harried around the track by yelling thin people. It's like something out of Dante.

Comments

[sanj]

Oh, my god. I hope I get into hell for fortunetelling like I'm supposed to.

*accepts visa to yogaland*

[resonant]

Well, everybody knows there's a Fat Circle of Hell. After all, there are all these Christian weight-loss books, so clearly God wants everyone to be thin.

[shayheyred]

Oh jeez. Yet another reason I avoid group weightloss.

[resonant]

God, yes.

[resonant]

Participation in this thing is voluntary (unlike high school gym class!), so people must imagine that they're going to get something out of it -- I suppose some people are motivated by primate competitive behavior, whereas it just makes me want to run away.

[malnpudl]

Wow. I would find that offensive to the point of inducing both nausea and rage.

[shayheyred]

I think it taps into a well of masochism that a lot of overweight people have or feel they should have in order to lose weight. Certainly the world says "you must suffer to lose weight," and the popularity of such "scream-at-the-contestant" shows and RL programs would attest to that. I know that for years I carried shame for being overweight, and certainly I felt weight loss programs were a punishment. It's significant to me that my success only came when I dropped out of these programs, hired a positive-reinforcement nutritionist and found a trainer who supported and didn't badger me.

[resonant]

I said above that I know some people, unlike me, do find this sort of primate competition stuff motivating -- but it does seem like self-hatred is a big factor, and I hate it. (I didn't stop gaining weight until I made a vow to give up dieting, reading weight-loss books, and all that kind of stuff. At that point my weight stabilized and I was able, eventually, to focus on things like making my muscles stronger and my heart healthier.)

But of course there aren't tremendous profits to be made off of telling people, "Hey, you're fine the way you are -- be comfortable in that, and eventually your body will tell you that it wants to take a walk or eat an orange."

[indywind]

But of course there aren't tremendous profits to be made off of telling people, "Hey, you're fine the way you are -- be comfortable in that, and eventually your body will tell you that it wants to take a walk or eat an orange."

Maybe there are... that's one of the big things that drew me to yogaland, or rather, the yoga studio I go to, where that's the operating ethic (I know other yoga schools can be just as competitive and punishing as anything Western)... my teacher, the studio owner, is doing a really brisk business in telling people they're fine the way they are and it's safe and healthy to listen to and cooperate with their bodies instead of trying to beat them into submission.

[shrewreader]

What do you mean 'like something out of Dante?'

My translation has the audiofile of it being read screamed by Jillian Michaels - doesn't yours?

[resonant]

This may be the first time in the history of the world that Jillian Michaels and Dante have been together on the same page.

[schemingreader]

Wow, that is really upsetting. I am loving being in the gym and really hating a lot that I'm watching daytime TV, which has a lot of weight loss shows on it. Not even The Greatest Loser, just random shows about people losing weight, having surgery to remove the fat near their armpits, getting over whatever psychological issues they had that made them want to eat (!) and so on. Any book I read about exercise is going to have some content about weight, even if what I'm trying to do is learn to swim more efficiently or how to pick up a dumbbell.

I hope there's no yelling audible in the actual yoga class.

[resonant]

We can hear it, yes -- some of it is happening right outside the door. The instructor will say wryly that it's an opportunity to develop tolerance and focus.

[mific]

Perhaps the fat people could just roll on the thin shouty ones and squash them? Or roll them up like in Katamari Damacy. Might only work if they were all in velcro bodysuits though, which would probably be too hot to run in. Fun, though.

[resonant]

If they all worked together, they could probably smoosh them standing up. The shouty people would never hear them coming.

[springwoof]

Isn't it interesting, in our socially conscious, politically correct society, that it's still okay to hate fat people?

[resonant]

But fat people choose to be fat! That's why you never see them at the gym! ... um, wait.