I used to have lists of all the things I was going to do when I was thin.
But after years of yo-yo dieting, losing weight and — like the vast majority of dieters — inevitably gaining more back, I realized that day may never come. So, I decided to stop waiting for a thin body to show up and take the body I had out for a spin. It was the best decision I’ve ever made.
I’ve been photographed doing the splits on Wall Street, taken dance classes at the legendary Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City, won three national ballroom dance competitions, completed two marathons, became the Guinness World Records’ heaviest woman to complete a marathon and begun training for an Ironman triathlon in Arizona in November. And I’ve done it all in a fat body.
If you’re curious about fitness, but worried your size is a barrier, take these lessons from me:
1. Recognize the truth about bodies.
We should start by facing some realities: All bodies, of all sizes, have abilities and limitations. Some people have chronic illnesses and disabilities, and everybody has genetic influences they can’t control. There are fat people who run ultramarathons and there are thin people whose bodies won’t tolerate running a mile. There are people who play wheelchair rugby and people who would rather read. All bodies are unique, and all bodies are good bodies.
[See: The Best Olympic Sport for Your Body Type.]
Approach your fitness journey like an experiment and know that — like everyone — some activities might not work. Don’t be too quick to assume your, say, clumsiness at dance is because of your size, or that your foray into swimming is silly because someone tells you you made too big of a splash. I recommend taking a weight-neutral approach — in other words, focus on fitness and let your body weight settle where it does. If you do a little research, you’ll probably find someone your size who is already doing the activity you want to try. If not, it’s your chance to be the first.
2. Find your epic thing.
What does “epic” even mean? You get to define it for yourself. If you are recovering from a car accident, it might be walking across the living room. If you are dealing with chronic pain, it might be Zumba once a week. If you’ve always had “run a half-marathon” on your list, it might be just that. Or, if you’ve always admired other plus-sized women who’ve climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, it may signing up for a rock-climbing class.
Once you choose your epic goal, you’ll want to choose intermediate goals. If you are doing a 13-mile obstacle course race, you might schedule a 10K run and 5-mile obstacle race along the way. These intermediate goals will break up a long training cycle and help you check your progress.
3. Gear up.
This sounds simple enough, but when you live in a larger body, clothing gets complicated. Often, fitness clothing lines don’t make plus sizes, and fitness stores don’t carry the brands that do. When they are available, the measurements vary wildly, so be sure to check the size charts.
You can check out stores like Lane Bryant and Avenue, or search for plus-size Old Navy activewear online. REI has been extending their plus-size offerings, and smaller lines like SheBeest.com, AerotechDesigns.com and FatLadatTheBack.com are good places to start. If there’s a company you’d like to see making larger sizes, connect with them online or on social media and let them know that plus-size athletes are out there and would love to give them service.
[See: 7 Pieces of Workout Gear to Ditch or Replace.]
4. Get support.
Talk to your close friends and family and get them on board with your new goals and your weight-neutral approach. Let them know that you’ve decided to do an epic thing in the body that you have now, and tell them exactly how they can support you (and, if necessary, what isn’t supportive, like weight-loss advice or negative body talk).
5. Find a team.
At some point, you may want to find people to help you on your journey. It may be a group class instructor or an individual coach. It could include a massage therapist, physical therapist or doctors. You might need to do some research to make sure that they are able and willing to work with you from a weight-neutral perspective (rather than, for example, seeing you as a “before” picture they’re eager to transform). Working to find the right people to give you expert advice and moral support will be worth it.
6. Focus on what you can control.
The research is clear that, with the exception of short-term weight loss, your weight is not really in your control. So, a weight-neutral fitness journey means focusing on what you can control, which includes the four pillars of fitness: strength, stamina, flexibility and sport-specific technique. You’ll need these in different measures depending on your goal (the splits I worked so hard on as a dancer didn’t help at all in my marathons). The experts on your team can help with this — both in terms of how much to focus on each pillar and what activities will get you to your goal.
7. When you hit a roadblock, exhaust the possibilities.
There are bumps in the road in all epic journeys — a weightlifter’s knee pain, a wheelchair athlete’s sprained wrist, a dancer getting stuck on a move that she just can’t seem to get. When this happens to higher-weight athletes, we, and our teams, can tend to immediately assume that our body size is the problem. That may be the case, but we want to exhaust all other possibilities first. Start by asking: Does this happen to thin athletes? If so, how do they deal with it? Try all of those strategies first.
[See: 12 Psychological Tricks to Get You Through a Workout or Race.]
8. Try, try again — or not.
There are a few possible outcomes of an epic fitness journey: success, failure or deciding to quit earlier than planned. Remember that this is an experiment and those are all completely valid outcomes. Maybe you’ll learn doing epic fitness things is more pain than pleasure for you, or maybe you’ll learn cycling gives you an addictive endorphin rush. Maybe you’ll want to set new goals in the same area, like running 50 marathons in 50 states, or maybe you want to set new goals entirely — I went from dancing to marathons to training for an endurance triathlon. I think I might try archery next. How about you?
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Too Fat for Fitness? Lessons From a Plus-Size Athlete originally appeared on usnews.com
