IN-PERSON COURSES
ONLINE COURSES
This morning I received an email ad for a yoga program to help me lose weight – because, clearly, weight loss should occupy most of my time and mind-space – what with being a doughy, middle-aged woman and all.
“This totally unique routine is designed for Women that would like to experience the wonderful benefits of Yoga while being able to burn calories, manage their weight and get into great shape at the same time. As you’ll see, the routine is fast-paced and challenging and uses the proven principals of progression to help women trim down, tighten up, and get fit.”
I spent many years in therapy and many subsequent years on my own continuing that work with yoga and meditation in order to overcome a nasty case of bulimia and develop a peaceful relationship with my body. So, hey guys, just a heads up. . . you chose the wrong person to target with this nonsense.
There was so much wrong with that email that I needed to do TWO yoga nidras before blogging about it.
Let’s begin.
Please tell me more about your “proven principals of progression?”
And what exactly are the “wonderful benefits of yoga” that I can experience while burning calories and managing my weight at the same time?
And why must we continue to trash yoga by painfully twisting it into yet another cheesy weight loss program?
This kind of mixed messaging (that yoga has wonderfully relaxing benefits, but you are going to feel the burn and lose weight too!) are pernicious and insidious to say the least. They only undermine the ability of yoga professionals to actually help people with the holistic and truly transformative aspects of practice.
Most women need to feel supported, to learn to access self-compassion, self-care and empathy, and to internalize a sense of self-worth and inner peace that helps them reject the culturally toxic ruse that they need to lose weight to be of any significant value as a human being.
Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there.
“The secret to the success of the Program lies in what’s referred to as “Dynamic Sequencing.” “Dynamic Sequencing” is the way in which the program teaches you how to properly perform each movement and then continues to adapt and increase the challenge at the precise moment your body starts to get used to the routine. This forces your body to change and adapt, which in turn, helps to build a shapely, feminine body that not only looks better, but feels better too!”
As my friends across the pond might say, “What a load of bollocks.”
There’s nothing physiologically accurate about this idea and please – stop telling women that they need to “force” their bodies to do anything or insinuate that their feminine bodies are anything other than feminine. And there’s nothing wrong with strong exercise, I love working out and I even love strong yoga poses – but I categorically refuse to do so with an intention of forcing or subduing my body.
Your body is you. It’s an ally, not an enemy in cahoots with the fat empire that must be forced into submission.
Why not teach women to use yoga to befriend their bodies instead?
And, just a side note, there’s very little research around exercise and weight loss, some studies attribute as little as 10% of weight loss to exercise. But there is a growing body of research suggesting that slow, mindful practices help to derail the stress response and ultimately inhibit emotional eating.
So even if you do capitulate to the fat police and sign up to burn your fat off with yoga, it’s a pretty lame strategy. If you insist on buying into this nonsense, just do it the old fashioned way and starve yourself (I don’t really mean that, actually I would invite you to come to my classes or trainings so I can help you de-program yourself from these fallacious, insidious ideas).
Okay, that felt good.
Now I’ll get back to enjoying and teaching about slow, mindful yoga, thank you very much.
Let’s defy the toxic messages that continue to pollute the yogaverse and instead, let’s support each other in using these practices to come home to ourselves and learn to value each other for our intrinsically beautiful beingness.
Amen! Thank you for this, Kristine. I’m in SC and I’m so tired of the “fitness” yoga and “weight loss” nonsense of it all. Yes, come to my classes to make peace with your body, to stop eating to feed your emotional needs — yaaaaasssss! But do not come to beat your body into submission. No pain, no pain. Breathe and move. Go deeper and deeper. Feel good. Yoga brain for everyone.
Yes! The world needs more yoga teachers like you Jen. Thank you for getting it and sharing it. xoxo
❤️
Yay 🙏🏼
And great call on that “load of bollocks” from across the pond 😊
Well, Boomshakalaka!! Excellent response to their ad Kaoverii! I was grinning from one sentence to the next! So much truth! Thanks for sharing!
one good boomshakalaka deserves another! thanks Susan. miss you!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! As a 46yo fluffy mom of 5 (spanning 3 decades!) I absolutely need yoga… my kids need me to have my yoga… frankly who has been to pusher of weight ideals anyway??? I walk. I asana. I eat good food. My blood work is excellent. My all type-risk is zero! But I’m 5’2″ and 208lbs. Give me a break lol this is what “woman” what “motherhood” looks like! If I’m barking at my kids, if I’m depressed at life… you can bet all I need is to sit, breathe, and stretch — I likewise HATE this abuse of the trend of yoga. It stands on it’s own and is much more than an exercise. Exercise is EXERCISE lol yoga is balancing, grounding, union. And BTW my curvy self can perform all the asanas in Sivananda series… just saying. Weight really doesn’t equate health/wellness
You rock Melinda! Thank you so much for sharing your journey!
Being over the pond I totally agree WHAT A LOAD OF OLD BOLLOCKS. I’m a yoga teacher with a sqidgy belly and soft hips and thighs and I love them – because I love me from the inside. Loved your rant Kristine – needed to be said.
Yes yes yes after 27 years as a personal trainer and boot camp instructor after being an emotional eater in my childhood. After finding subtle yoga and Kaoverii in 2007 I learned slowly to calm my ass down and appreciate it!!!
So beautifully well said…allow yoga to be wHat it is meant to be. Namaste
I am reminded of Two of my favorite Carrie Fisher comments: “being young and beautiful is not an accomplishment “ and “I think my weight is the least interesting thing about me”. These quotes help me stay centered when I see ll this fat shaming crap. Thanks for speaking out!
Amen Christine 🙏
I too have struggled with eating disorders the majority of my life. I have slowly lost 65 pounds over the last 2 years. I practice slow and gentle yoga and it has helped me tremendously in truly appreciating my body for what it can do. I developed a positive body image and yoga is the first form of exercise that I didn’t use to punish my body, it’s quite the opposite actually!
Yes, I totally get that Brenda. Kudos to you for subverting the paradigm!
Well said! So many messages out there insinuate that we are less than the powerful, beautiful beings that we are. We need to counteract those messages with compassion and correct, scientific information. Thank you
🙏🏼💛
Thank you. I long ago knew I’d never work for any studio that combined weightless and yoga. I struggle as well with the pairing of yoga with every “detox” concept out there.
Kristine, hi
I had bulimia also as a young woman and know the neurotic sinkhole of dieting and self worth, so I am cautious about the whole subject of dieting.
Over the years at the yoga studio, I have been approached by people, especially women, concerned not just about
appearance, but about the prospect and even the expectation that many of them will become diabetic because they eat ordinary American food.
For many people, this situation isn’t vanity over a few extra pounds. It is truly a life altering, life threatening obesity condition brought on by eating what we consider to be regular foods and then dieting to lose the fat the body accumulates when overloaded with refined starches.
Many people will not be able to make a decision to change the way they eat – at all. Emotions. Family traditions. Normality even if it’s destructive. And especially the diet mentality of starving and exercising harshly to whip the body into shape.
Some people will be able to understand the underlying reasons for the weight gain and adjust pretty simply to correct the overloads of starches and sugars and eat higher quality foods.
I have included yoga in the workshops I’ve taught because yoga supports conscious transformation. Changing habits feels like being caught in a hurricane to lots of people. Very strange and dizzying. Yoga steadies them so that they can embrace feelings and sensations and make fresh patterns for themselves.
The ones who honestly choose not to undertake the work of change are as worthy as those who do. It’s just a road that divides and people go one way or another. We actually need to love and appreciate the ones for whom the standard diet is going to be their path – because that is currently most people.
I see the food industry having a massive effect on lives by promoting the foods that have made people fat and sick and then investing in the diabetes medications needed to live that way. It’s beyond cynical.
As a colleague and a fellow former dieter, I want you to know that I see what you’re saying and am happy to see love extended in this situation – but wonder if there is a way to also let people know that if they are ready, ever, there are ways to return to health by following in the steps of people who have been in similar straits and worked out an answer that lasts for themselves.
It didn’t exist when we began the workshops, but we have come to love following the stories posted by Andrea Eenfeld, a Swedish doctor who has let go his office practice to research and light the way for those suffering in the obesity epidemic. You might find his website interesting.
Namaste, Kaoverii.
Barbara Schauer
Such an important, different, but related point Barbara – yoga can help people adjust their lifestyles and in fact I would suggest that this is the core transformation that is available through yoga. Thank you for bringing this point up. I really appreciate your perspective.
Lol, yes sometimes we need to express ourselves to point out the blatant obvious and, no we don’t need to be polite about it. The fact that so many suppress their true feelings or opinions and never speak out, is astonishing in itself. There is a way to be appalled and vocalize without being a bitchy complainer. I like to say there is a difference between ranting and complaining. A rant is when we need to call out what is pathetic because we can’t control these stupid behaviors in others and a complaint is when people criticize without taking responsibility or action towards something when they should which results in being a chronic complainer. Hopefully, the negligent ones realize to look in the mirror either way.
As teachers, instructors and educators, we must heed the need to believe we can make a claim to helping everyone become better… no is broken or needs to be fixed… we all need to keep learning so we can keep growing. That person did fail to promote the benefits of her said program so that people can decide for themselves if that’s what they want. And no, weight loss should never be the goal. The goal in her case should to attract her tribe who likes the style of her classes. Period. Not promises because no one has control of the outcome of any single person.
There’s my 2 cents worth.
Kristine,
Thank you for this blog. As a person who continues to struggle with an eating disorder (binge eating to avoid unpleasant feelings, then guilt, then diet, then bingeing from deprivation), I am so sick of the body image shaming and diet culture that now has permeated into my safe place: yoga.
Thanks Joanne, and I’d like to offer that there are many resources out there and I hope that you can get some professional help.
Well said, thank you Kristine. I like the signs pointing to the opposite directions.
I feel that resting , calming , balancing, breathing stage is the most important during yoga practice.
Once the student ‘arrived home’, feeling rested, relaxed and present, then there may be room for strengths building or some faster sequences.
Then let the student ‘come back home’ again to feel those shifts in their bodies.In this way, the signs maybe will be pointing to the same direction….
Spot on as always Kristine, I really appreciate your straightforward and compassionate writing. I will be sharing this on my page in the hope that it will inspire my students to let go the need to pursue weight loss in everything they do. They are indeed beautiful and powerful just as they are. Thank you!
As a yoga/meditation instructor I could not have said it better myself. Thank you, thank you!
And don’t EVEN get me started on the yoga while drinking booze craze.
yes, it’s a big issue as well. Thank you Lisa!
I have been teaching Yoga for 34 years and slow, correctly executed postures is the only way to practice. Keep up the positive rejnforcement for those of us who practice it slowly, correctly and gently