5 Tips for Fat Liberation in Movement Spaces
Hi Friend,
I had the pleasure of spending some time last weekend with the Body Kind group in Idaho Falls. We had a great time smashing scales at a smash room downtown followed by a little picnic by the river. This was a wonderful experience and so fun to create some new connections with like-minded people in the community. It was powerful to take a bat to the scales and destroy them one by one while cheering each other on. Each of us wrote powerful messages on our scales before smashing them and the catharsis was real! If you have a scale taking up mental and physical space in your life, I highly recommend doing something like this. It was an empowering reminder that diet/wellness culture has no place in my life. You do not owe the world thinness. Thinness should not be the golden ticket to finally being “allowed” kindness, respect, and care.
Recently, I have continued educating myself to dismantle the discriminatory beliefs around fatness through reading Aubrey Gordon’s new book “You Just Need to Lose Weight” And 19 Other Myths About Fat People. This is Aubrey’s second fat activism book and I am loving this one as well. I am learning a lot and also facing the heartbreaking reality of fat discrimination that is happening all around us.
While this book is hard to read at times, it only adds fuel to the fire, driving me to have an inclusive yoga space where all bodies are celebrated and welcomed. It has been difficult navigating the many student requests for classes centered around changing their bodies, losing weight, and looking a certain way. The yoga industry is already very white, female, and thin body-centered without another yoga teacher/studio hopping into the ranks centering “yoga for weight loss”, or ‘body sculpting” classes. I refuse to fall into that category. I find yoga classes where there is a lot of movement, physical challenge, and accelerated heart rate to be so fun but, do they really need to be taught with the intention of shrinking your body to fit an ideal body type, a body type that is a constantly moving target and impossible to ever truly achieve? No.
If you are tired of entering movement spaces and having the default goal be changing your body here are some tips and ideas to help set boundaries and find peace with your body while still accessing movement classes.
5 Tips for Fat Yoga/ Movement Spaces
Take steps in dismantling discriminatory beliefs about fatness in your own life. This might mean you are engaging with fat voices in the media and listening to what they have to say. You might focus on understanding what messages you hear about worth, respect, and kindness and how they relate to body size. Similar to other discriminatory practices, fat bias is everywhere within our culture and there are probably many beliefs you will need to unpack and evaluate within yourself because of that. Be kind to yourself and go at a supportive pace with this work. Peeling back the layers will take time and may bring up past traumas and unwanted narratives about ourselves, our families, or past experiences.
2. Enter into the movement space with the goal of finding movement that works for you, not whatever goal the teacher has said or implied. While it would be lovely if all movement spaces functioned without the underlying assumption that you are there to change your body, we are far from that end goal. You might need to practice stating these boundaries to the teacher or other students. Phrases like “I am not interested in changing my body”, “Please don’t assume things about my body, diet, or ability level”, “I’m not taking any suggestions about how to change my body right now” or “I am just here to enjoy movement in my body” can be a useful tool to set boundaries. Stating these goals explicitly might allow you to feel more empowerment and space to ditch the overt expectations about why you are in class. When you already know your “why” it can be easier to let go of the other narratives around you.
3. Look for a teacher who supports Health At Every Size, body positivity/neutrality, and has experience giving modifications for different body types in class. If you already have a teacher you love working with, you might even suggest they look into these ideas and learn more about implementing size inclusivity in their teaching practices. You can also learn from a teacher in one movement modality and take those tips and tricks and apply them in another space. Some students of mine recently shared how they took a Barre class and were able to make modifications for their bodies and not feel any shame or guilt about it (!!!) A huge win.
4. If you can, find supportive gear and clothing that makes you feel comfortable it can help. This, unfortunately, is not accessible to everyone and there might be financial or systemic barriers to you being able to find and purchase supportive bras, high-waisted leggings, well-fitting shoes, etc. A community support system, like the body kind group in Idaho Falls, might be a helpful resource to ask what brands have worked well for other people, what stores they have tried, or even a clothing swap. If you are doing a floor-based activity finding a mat that is thicker and offers more cushioning and support can be helpful as well as chairs that have wider bases and offer more space for movement. Using different props or tools to support your body and add to accessibility is also a great tip. Yoga classes where you can use blocks, do chair-based poses or use yoga straps to access different poses are a great hack.
5. Practice self-compassion and kindness. This is a hard journey and it can become easy to slip back into old mindsets especially if the teachers and students around you are feeding into it. Give yourself lots of time and grace when doing the work of setting and holding body boundaries. Finding a community that supports you can be a game changer or even a friend or two to go to yoga/movement classes with who has your back can be really helpful.
Shifting the focus from weight loss to improving mental health, mobility, strength, and learning new things can be challenging but you got this!
Here are some resources to support your learning along the way.
Books:
“You Just Need to Lose Weight” by Aubrey Gordon
What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon
Podcasts:
Maintenance Phase
Classes:
Fat Yoga Friends- Every first Saturday of the Month at 10:30 am
Health At Every Size (HAES) Dietitians:
Live Well Dietitian
Food Fight Newsletter
