An open letter to the ‘keyboard warriors’…

I’ve recently had a bit of negative attention online - it happens from time to time when you’re living joyfully in a fat body - society at large tends to be easily offended. And by posting this photo and talking about being fat and happy in my body on my own Facebook page I draw the attention of the kind of people who claim that I’m immoral, a ‘joke’ and talking absolute nonsense. (I’m purposely not linking the specific post here - my supporters don’t need to read the comments - there’s no joy to be had there!)

It appears that some of you ‘keyboard warriors’ seem to think I’m ‘anti-diet’ because I’ve never tried one. They assume (based on how my body looks) that I’ve never had the ‘pleasure’. Because they think that you can tell someone’s eating and exercise habits (or their health) based on how their bodies look. NEWSFLASH - You can’t!

I don’t intend to share all of the gory details (it’s boring) and I’m not telling you any of this stuff because it has any moral value or because dieting makes you a ‘better’ or ‘worse’ person - it doesn’t. Food and exercise are personal preferences and I’m choosing to share a little bit about my lived experience.

The truth is I’m ‘anti-diet’ because I tried LOADS of them! I was great at them! I was even better at putting weight on after each diet – which I now know is the body’s natural survival response to restriction. I spent about 20 years following diets and restricting what I ate – which I believe have ultimately contributed to the [fat] body I have today.

I speak from years of lived experience of diet culture. I’m an article of it’s ‘success’ because I kept going back time and time again.

My lived experience is also reflected in the science – Researchers have shown that diets don’t work beyond the short term and lead to weight gain over time. (If you want to know more about the specific studies I highly recommend Emma Green PhD and Fat Doctor UK who do a much better job of explaining it that I can!).

Personally - after years of consideration I finally decided that diet culture has had quite enough of my time, energy and money.

I’ve also exercised on and off my whole life – but have only really found joy in exercise in the last 10 years – when I started to realise that not all exercise had to be a punishment for what I’d eaten and when I started to care for and embrace my body rather than cause it pain or harm.

I found joy and accomplishment in exercise and started to feel benefits mentally and physically (even when my weight didn’t change). So I carried on exercising - because if was fun and it felt good. I began to ignore the (well meaning but fat phobic) comments I was getting in fitness spaces as I started to find them a bit jarring - when you’re no longer in diet culture you feel a bit like you’re swimming against the current and it can make places like gyms feel slightly hostile.

So I started to wonder if I could maybe become an instructor to create a fitness space free from the constant diet talk and all that it entails - and it won’t surprise you to hear that’s exactly what I did! So now, as a qualified fitness instructor, I’m sharing my approach to exercise with others (if they’re interested). Exercise away from diet culture has kept me physically active and engaged with exercise for the longest sustained period in my life – I simply want to support others to find their joy in exercise too – especially those who didn’t think it would ever be possible for them.

If you’re happy with the weight-centric diet culture infused fitness industry – that’s GREAT for you! You go and do your thing! It’s great that you’ve found something that works for you and your body and I wish you every success!

If you don’t like the idea of a fat fitness instructor then just assume I’m not the instructor for you and move on with your life. Perhaps start to question why you have such an issue with the concept and question your fat phobic bias… But please, don’t feel obliged to tell me what you think – I know already – society and fat phobia make it abundantly clear on an almost daily basis!

I’m well aware that I don’t meet the societal norms of a fitness professional but I know I’m good at what I do and I care very much about my participants and their wellbeing. I know the limits of my practice and what I offer is access to joyful accessible exercise for the people who are looking for something that I’m able to provide. I don’t offer false promises. I’m not here to seek your approval - I’m here to encourage people to move their bodies. I’ll keep doing it with or without your support.

BUT if you are ever ready to try something a little different, away from the other keyboard warriors and their fat phobic buddies – why not give MissFits Workout a try? You just might discover a little bit of MissFits Magic and all of the positives that could bring.