Thursday, June 30, 2011

Finding Fitness Bliss

Yoga. I love Yoga. To my very bones I love the stuff.

I started taking yoga classes when I was 19 at the little gym by my mom's house and fell in love. I couldn't afford classes for a few years, but when my son was a toddler, I started taking them again. Probably only went to 10-15 classes and stopped again.

That was probably 7-8 years ago. I haven't stepped foot into a yoga class since the parade of perfect barbies in yoga pants and tank tops at the Big-Box Gym I used to belong to back then. I was always the only fat girl in the back of the class. The closest I came to finding anyone my size was the pregnant woman that sometimes showed up. The instructors have always been fantastic. It was the looks I felt I was getting from the other students that always bothered me.

Taking any kind of group classes as a fat person is never easy. A lot of overweight people refuse to take them due to being self-conscious and worried over how they look in class. Being the only person in an over-sized shirt and baggy pants while everyone else is in skin-tight workout gear doesn't help anyone feel like they fit in with the group. Speaking from a fat girl's perspective, I have lived my life trying to fight against the stereotypes of being overweight. Proving that I am not a sweaty, stinky, flopping mass of rolls has been a life-long struggle. And going into a class where sweating, stinking and flopping the fat around is most certainly going to happen.... it's at least a little bit uncomfortable.

All of that being said, I still went. I still sat with a flat back as my muscles screamed. I still bent my over-sized body parts into the positions demonstrated by the instructors. I went because I wanted to be more. I went because I loved the focus it gave me.

If there is something that you really want to do, do it. The fear of judgement, and the fear of failure are probably what have kept most of us overweight folks just that.... overweight. Most people that I have talked to who are fit and healthy don't look down on the fatties in class. Most are encouraging and supportive that you are working towards bettering your health.

Life is too short to miss out on doing things that you love simply because you have some extra poundage on your bones. I love Yoga. I am finally taking classes again. The teacher this time around challenges me in ways I have never been challenged in a yoga class before. It hurts. I sweat and turn red. I can't do all the moves at least partially right. But I love it. Fat be damned.

1 comment:

  1. Doing it "right" is never as important as "doing it", particularly when the matter in question is finding or following your bliss.

    Good for you, girl... and you go! :)

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