Happy 2009, folks!My only resolution is to be more disciplined and that can be applied to many things, from making regular blog posts...to exercising regularly.
I've had various gym memberships since the early 1990s but I'm still a big girl. Why? Mainly because I am not a superwoman and there are only 24hrs in a day.
"But those are just excuses!" I hear you shout. Maybe, but it's true.
I have a 12-month gym membership that will expire in June. It should expire in April but I had to take a 2-month hiatus while I dealt with a respiratory infection (and relapse). I've just recently gotten to the point where I can do a flight of stairs without feeling like I'm about to pass out. Perhaps if I was thinner, I would be more fit to fight off the chronic respiratory illnesses that have been plaguing me for the last 3 years.
Yes, I can stand to lose weight. I would love to be a size 16...but I also love hamburgers. I hope to see size 16 again one day, but I'm not going to sacrifice my love for the occasional hamburger. I am like many overweight women. It's not like I eat a LOT. I don't sit down and put away 30 Big Macs in one meal. In fact, I love salads and vegetables. But I just don't get enough exercise to burn off the things I do eat that help put on the weight. Plain and simple.
However, I shall be rejoining my gym at the busiest time of the year for gyms because this is the time of year where millions of people are thinking in unison. We are thinking: "This is the year that I get fit!" or "get thin."
I figure now is a perfect time to offer up my views about the book, Locker Room Diaries: The Naked Truth about Women, Body Image, and Re-Imagining the "Perfect" Body by Leslie Goldman.
The title says it all and the book delivers what is "on the label."
According to the blurb on the back cover, Leslie Goldman, MPH, is a health writer for the American Medical Association. She is also a recovering anorexic. Now why the hell should we listen to some skinny minnie who already has a skewed outlook on body image and weight? "Recovering" or not, we learn that she still has a high-level workout routine that would intimidate many women.
This was one of the things going through my mind as I read the book, but Goldman makes up for it because this is written from a first-person point of view. Sometimes I find Goldman's "voice" annoying, as if she's trying too hard to be witty at times, but more often than not, she sounds like one of the girlfriends you have whom you can easily talk to. Why is that?
Because Locker Room Diaries is a unique book. It is a collection of interviews conducted by Goldman of the women in her gym and not a simple recollection of her views and opinions. She interviews fellow members of her gym (and it's a nice gym) and even the staff and winds up uncovering stories that are funny, touching, sad, and more. She also talks to medical professionals, but face it, it's the views and opinions of the gym members we're interested in and there are plenty. Goldman's personal experience with anorexia also provides useful insight from someone who has survived but must still deal with her eating disorder.
For example, Goldman talks about a woman named Jane. Jane is anorexic. She knows it (but won't admit it) the gym knows it, but no one can tell her differently. "She's gonna tell you to go fuck yourself," warns a gym employee when Goldman suggests talking to her. Jane goes into the gym and works out, daily, for three hours, and has done for 10 years. Her anorexia shows not just in her living-skeleton physique (Spandex sags on her body) but in her dry, brittle hair. Imagine everyone's shock when Jane gets pregnant and starts showing...but doesn't let up on her work out regime. Can you imagine what her child will have to deal with? Perhaps Jane's child will be like the little girl Goldman observes with her mother:
"The mother followed her daughter's gleeful voice to The Scale, where she rumpled her daughter's hair, giving her a cursory 'That's great, honey!' She lifted her daughter off the scale and then got on herself. In one swift motion, the mother's face soured and her head dropped. She stepped gingerly off the scale and, without another word, returned to her locker and continued dressing. And wouldn't you know it, before I had the chance to ask myself, 'Will this turn into a vicious, lifelong cycle?' that little girl climbed back onto the scale, and in a performance worthy of a pint-sized Oscar, imitated her mother's actions, right down to her exaggerated pouty face. Was she old enough to read the numbers? Probably not."
Or Jane's child may be like the one who asks her mother, "Mommy, why do you only eat salads?"
But not all the examples related are so disheartening. You'll hear about women who are unashamed to walk around naked in the locker room, no matter their size or age, and their counterparts who have developed interesting body contortions in order to change clothes while exposing as little flesh as possible.
In addition to book chapters, Goldman subdivides them depending on the topic or interviewee. Here's some examples: "Pimples, Crotches, and Butts, Oh My!" "Breasts: They Do A Body Good", "Living Life Large...And Loving It", the list goes on. Goldman covers topics ranging from exercising regularly, exercising while pregnant, age and exercise, and cultural perspectives of weight and body image. I'm not listing them all here, but that's enough to give you an idea.
As expected, the book spends a lot of time showing how women constantly compare themselves (often unrealistically) with other women but it also shows how women can want something that they just will not get because of simple genetics, including racial makeup. Face it ladies, sometimes your race will determine how your body works. Live with it. There's nothing wrong with it or you.
One of the best parts of the book comes towards the end in the chapter, "Having a Senior Moment: What Lessons Can the Older Generation Teach Us?" Perhaps we should listen to Becky, the ninety-one year old yoga instructor whom people ask to see proof of her age because she looks decades younger, so she shows them her drivers license. Becky says:
"I believe in focusing on the body, as long as we remember we are not the body; and if you focus too much on the body, you lose what you really are. And what you really are is a beautiful daughter of God. First, realize you are a spiritual soul. The body is a vessel. And that's what's wrong with the world today--we're so interested in the I, the me, that we don't realize we're more than the body. We're the mind and spirit. That's why I don't really consider myself an African American woman. Because I believe in reincarnation, I see myself as a Greek woman, an Egyptian woman. So I just think of myself as a citizen of the world, like Socrates."I've had various gym memberships since the early 1990s but I'm still a big girl. Why? Mainly because I am not a superwoman and there are only 24hrs in a day.
"But those are just excuses!" I hear you shout. Maybe, but it's true.
I have a 12-month gym membership that will expire in June. It should expire in April but I had to take a 2-month hiatus while I dealt with a respiratory infection (and relapse). I've just recently gotten to the point where I can do a flight of stairs without feeling like I'm about to pass out. Perhaps if I was thinner, I would be more fit to fight off the chronic respiratory illnesses that have been plaguing me for the last 3 years.
Yes, I can stand to lose weight. I would love to be a size 16...but I also love hamburgers. I hope to see size 16 again one day, but I'm not going to sacrifice my love for the occasional hamburger. I am like many overweight women. It's not like I eat a LOT. I don't sit down and put away 30 Big Macs in one meal. In fact, I love salads and vegetables. But I just don't get enough exercise to burn off the things I do eat that help put on the weight. Plain and simple.
However, I shall be rejoining my gym at the busiest time of the year for gyms because this is the time of year where millions of people are thinking in unison. We are thinking: "This is the year that I get fit!" or "get thin."
I figure now is a perfect time to offer up my views about the book, Locker Room Diaries: The Naked Truth about Women, Body Image, and Re-Imagining the "Perfect" Body by Leslie Goldman.
The title says it all and the book delivers what is "on the label."
According to the blurb on the back cover, Leslie Goldman, MPH, is a health writer for the American Medical Association. She is also a recovering anorexic. Now why the hell should we listen to some skinny minnie who already has a skewed outlook on body image and weight? "Recovering" or not, we learn that she still has a high-level workout routine that would intimidate many women.
This was one of the things going through my mind as I read the book, but Goldman makes up for it because this is written from a first-person point of view. Sometimes I find Goldman's "voice" annoying, as if she's trying too hard to be witty at times, but more often than not, she sounds like one of the girlfriends you have whom you can easily talk to. Why is that?
Because Locker Room Diaries is a unique book. It is a collection of interviews conducted by Goldman of the women in her gym and not a simple recollection of her views and opinions. She interviews fellow members of her gym (and it's a nice gym) and even the staff and winds up uncovering stories that are funny, touching, sad, and more. She also talks to medical professionals, but face it, it's the views and opinions of the gym members we're interested in and there are plenty. Goldman's personal experience with anorexia also provides useful insight from someone who has survived but must still deal with her eating disorder.
For example, Goldman talks about a woman named Jane. Jane is anorexic. She knows it (but won't admit it) the gym knows it, but no one can tell her differently. "She's gonna tell you to go fuck yourself," warns a gym employee when Goldman suggests talking to her. Jane goes into the gym and works out, daily, for three hours, and has done for 10 years. Her anorexia shows not just in her living-skeleton physique (Spandex sags on her body) but in her dry, brittle hair. Imagine everyone's shock when Jane gets pregnant and starts showing...but doesn't let up on her work out regime. Can you imagine what her child will have to deal with? Perhaps Jane's child will be like the little girl Goldman observes with her mother:
"The mother followed her daughter's gleeful voice to The Scale, where she rumpled her daughter's hair, giving her a cursory 'That's great, honey!' She lifted her daughter off the scale and then got on herself. In one swift motion, the mother's face soured and her head dropped. She stepped gingerly off the scale and, without another word, returned to her locker and continued dressing. And wouldn't you know it, before I had the chance to ask myself, 'Will this turn into a vicious, lifelong cycle?' that little girl climbed back onto the scale, and in a performance worthy of a pint-sized Oscar, imitated her mother's actions, right down to her exaggerated pouty face. Was she old enough to read the numbers? Probably not."
Or Jane's child may be like the one who asks her mother, "Mommy, why do you only eat salads?"
But not all the examples related are so disheartening. You'll hear about women who are unashamed to walk around naked in the locker room, no matter their size or age, and their counterparts who have developed interesting body contortions in order to change clothes while exposing as little flesh as possible.
In addition to book chapters, Goldman subdivides them depending on the topic or interviewee. Here's some examples: "Pimples, Crotches, and Butts, Oh My!" "Breasts: They Do A Body Good", "Living Life Large...And Loving It", the list goes on. Goldman covers topics ranging from exercising regularly, exercising while pregnant, age and exercise, and cultural perspectives of weight and body image. I'm not listing them all here, but that's enough to give you an idea.
As expected, the book spends a lot of time showing how women constantly compare themselves (often unrealistically) with other women but it also shows how women can want something that they just will not get because of simple genetics, including racial makeup. Face it ladies, sometimes your race will determine how your body works. Live with it. There's nothing wrong with it or you.
One of the best parts of the book comes towards the end in the chapter, "Having a Senior Moment: What Lessons Can the Older Generation Teach Us?" Perhaps we should listen to Becky, the ninety-one year old yoga instructor whom people ask to see proof of her age because she looks decades younger, so she shows them her drivers license. Becky says:
Despite the many topics covered, the book doesn't read choppy or incomplete. Sure there are themes that could be expanded into their own book, but Locker Room Diaries provides just enough variety to keep your interest without becoming boring. There will be women that you can relate to as well as women you'll want to strangle with their bikini thong.
I highly recommend this book so I'm going to give Locker Room Diaries - 5 hernias out of 5 because I think this book provides a wide (no pun intended) illustration about the relationship women have with their bodies and their motives to exercise.
In fact, I plan to re-read this book to keep me motivated--and inspired--as I resume my goal of getting FITTER, if not leaner.
Now, excuse me as I go get a hamburger for my lunch.
5 comments:
I think that's a healthy goal, to be fitter/healthier and not just set out to be a certain weight, or fit into certain clothes, or look like a certain supermodel.... ahcgh.
Wanted to tell you I keep thinking about parts of Messalina that address this issue, and cracking up whenever I visualize that skinny blonde thing, "the twirler"... oooh, girl! That one can make me laugh even on a long bus ride after a hard day. ;) If people don't know what I'm talking about,they'll just have to read Messalina, huh?
LOL - you know who originally told me that term? Jeremy! And YES! If people out there don't know what we're talking need to read MESSALINA - DEVOURER OF MEN! :)
I have high blood pressure. I went to the doctor and he freaked out because it was so high. He put me on blood pressure pills and I started working out and eating healthier meals. I have lost a total of fifty pounds in the last year, and I plan on keeping it off but it is a struggle.
Thank you for providing this information. You sound like me but I think I may be a bit worse they you ok I am lying I am lot worse. I procrastinate so much my procrastination procrastinates. This book sounds like it would be a great start for motivation and encouragement. I look in the mirror sometimes and say I love myself and if no one else does then bump them. Then the next time I look or take a picture I say damn you a fat cow and need to stop lying to yourself and loose the weight. A never ending cycle it seems sometimes. Again thanks for the words and the book.
LOL, thank you for being a REAL woman and writing what us REAL women mainly only think about!
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