Ready to start your own body image revolution?
Imagine loving an exercise program so much that you excel at it, that your teacher suggests you train to become a teacher, that during the six month training program, the trainers tell your fellow students to stand behind Kelly, watch how Kelly moves, move like Kelly moves, use your energy like Kelly uses her energy….
And at the end of the training course, being rejected because your body is a size 12, not a size 8.
That’s what happened to Kelly Bliss in the early 1980s, and the organisation who gave her that ‘you’re not thin enough to suit our image’ message, was Jazzercise.
And yet it’s one of the best things that ever happened to Kelly Bliss, because she went on to open her own exercise studio, found the Plus Size Yellow Pages, overcome huge health challenges after a car accident, and develop a healthy living program called Lifestyle Watchers – which is NOT your grandma’s weight watchers!
In 1980, like most of us, Kelly was certain that exercising and eating well would absolutely make her lean. So she started running, and she did lose some weight at first. She worked her way up to running for three hours a day – and still did not get really lean. While running a marathon in New York one day, turning a corner, she heard a spectator say “Look, there’s a fat one” – and that moment helped her realise that her body was not meant to be “skinny”.
She realised that running three hours per day was in fact unhealthy behaviour, and she was able to start focussing on other things that were more important in her life! One of those areas was the Health At Every Size program, which she describes as the New Peace Movement. The principles and processes of Health At Every Size focus on the actions of health living. Kelly’s PlusSizeYellowPages.com has an extensive listing of resources and practitioners of the Health At Every Size program.
We can all be positive body image activists, by taking small actions that over time add up, and add to the collective voice changing the underlying cultural message. One of Kelly’s favourites is to write a review of a positive book at Amazon.com, and also write a negative review of a body-image-negative book.
To hear more of what Kelly has to say about government obesity campaigns, fat hatred, body set point, how to ask for what you want, functional fitness, and her predictions for the next ten years, please visit The Body Image Revolution.