Just 12 hours after the last Halloween party left and my sugary kids were put to bed, I started my typical Monday morning fitness class. But in the middle of the plank, the instructor’s commentary caught me off guard and didn’t sit well with me for the rest of the day.
“Let’s get rid of all this Halloween candy!” » she shouted into her microphone.
The nonchalant phrase “let’s work on ___,” while surely intended as a light-hearted joke, is seriously problematic, experts say. The idea that you need to exercise more than you eat or earn treats isn’t just prevalent on Halloween — it’s also extremely common during the holiday season.
Here’s why this mentality needs to stop and how you can feel good in your body instead:
This discredits the most important benefits of exercise.
I definitely wasn’t at the gym that morning burning Sugar Daddys and Dots. I was there to strengthen my postpartum abs, to visit my friends, and to move my body to be looser and stronger.
Emmie Keefe, a Boston-based nutritionist, said that whenever instructors focus on this calorie-based “motivation,” it backfires.
“We should never exercise to burn calories. … We should exercise for cardiovascular health, for mental health, for emotional health. It gives structure to your day. You can create social connections by taking classes together,” she explained. “There is so many reasons to exercise. Bburning calories shouldn’t be one of them.
Recent research shows that focusing on regular physical activity improves your longevity, even more than focusing on weight loss. Exercise also eases symptoms of anxiety and depression, improves creativity, and helps you sleep better. Meanwhile, viewing exercise as a punishment rather than a beneficial activity makes you less likely to engage in healthy behavior.
Keefe added that the “mental gymnastics” of trying to count calories in and calories out with food and exercise isn’t always realistic or helpful. Instead, exercising regularly can help you feel more motivated in other areas of your life and start the day productively.
“What this walk and workout class won’t do is burn off what you ate right before,” she said. “This way of thinking is a big, big problem.”
There are so many reasons to exercise. Burning calories shouldn’t be one of them.
-Emmie Keefe
This promotes harmful eating mentalities.
How do you feel when you’re about to enjoy a pumpkin pie that you only encounter once or twice a year? I hope just excited, and nothing else. According to Alyssa Royse, owner of Rocket Community Fitness in Seattle, the mindset that you have to earn that cake or fix the damage is “really dangerous.”
“It ties us to this idea that we have to earn the right to eat and the right to have pleasure. Those two things are innate in just having a body…by virtue of being alive, you have the right (both),” she said.
“When we moralize about food, we trigger all kinds of dangerous thoughts and behaviors in people,” she continued. This includes eating disorders, which can lead to major long-term health complications, such as heart damage, hair growth problems, brain damage, lethargy, and more.
Instead of creating these negative connections, the trainers at his gym don’t mention food. If the holidays are coming, they try to focus on the positives like “go have fun and enjoy the generosity, go feel the joy…that’s your body’s main purpose: to feel joy,” Royse said.
Royse added that people already have these harmful thoughts around the holidays, following years of toxic messages in the media where people are pressured to be thinner. She encourages her clients to question the connections they and others have made and instead move toward body and food neutrality.
“Food doesn’t have to be an emotional or moral experience. You’re allowed to eat it,” she said.
Keefe also noted that shaming yourself about what you ate can have additional physical consequences. Because of the stress hormones you release through this thought pattern, you may experience stomach pain and digestive issues (along with many other issues like headaches, heart palpitations, and more).
“You’re really making yourself suffer twice,” she said. Instead, she insists on enjoying it and moving on.
Food doesn’t need to be an emotional or moral experience. You are allowed to have it.
-Alyssa Royse
It’s better to listen to your body.
Both experts believe it’s necessary to listen to your body instead of letting external forces influence how you feel, especially when it comes to the holidays. This process, also known as mindful eating, involves paying close attention to your food, mentally noticing how it tastes and how pleasant it feels to eat it. It also allows you to listen to your natural hunger and fullness signals. Food is not something you “earn” and you definitely shouldn’t “get by.”
Royse said she was specifically trying to drink more water (one glass per holiday cocktail) and take more walks, not as a penalty but as a way to counteract any physical discomfort she might be feeling.
Keefe loves all the holiday foods she wants, while prioritizing nutrition. She chooses fruits and vegetables when she can, noting that vacations don’t necessarily mean eating only rich foods or sticking only to the veggie platter. She’s also seen clients make themselves sick while trying to preemptively offset the physical impact of the holidays.
“They exhaust themselves exercising in anticipation or in reaction to the way they ate over the holidays. Their overall health deteriorates…their body is put under enormous stress,” she said. “Treat your body with kindness.”
If you have an eating disorder, call National Eating Disorder Association Helpline at 1-800-931-2237.
The original version of this story was published on HuffPost earlier.
Gn Health
