Honor your boundaries to return to your session strong.
There’s nothing more deflating than when you’re killing it at the gym and someone approaches you with some fatphobic “encouragement.”
This encouragement can present in a few different ways. Maybe an encourager is pushing you toward a goal you don’t even want—say, by assuming you’re working out to lose weight or to change the look of your body. Or the encouragement may be based on their belief that a larger-bodied person can’t possibly be doing the kinds of fitness feats you’re already doing. Along those lines too, the person might try to turn you into an inspiration simply because of your body.
When this kind of anti-fat encouragement happens to you, it can be difficult to think on your feet and respond in a way you don’t second-guess yourself about later. So here are some anti-fat encouragement scenarios that I have either personally encountered while working out, or had clients encounter, and the responses that have been successful in shutting it down. Hopefully these can help you too if you experience something similar.
So back to the weight-loss encourager. I’d stick with something like this: “I’m glad you were able to reach your goals, but my goals are different.” This way, you can remain supportive to someone who may be genuinely trying to help and honor their goals, but at the same time, draw a clear boundary without explaining why. But if you’d like to be more straightforward, you can tell that while you were glad they were able to reach their goals, you are happy with your weight as it is.
These responses show clear boundaries and clearly let the person know they have missed the mark. How direct you want to be with how you get it across, though, depends on how you feel in that instance!treadmill
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