If I asked you to shout out–quick!–one word that summarizes your body goals, what would it be?
You might say healthy, lively, or energetic. You might say fit, sexy, or muscular. You could say just about anything, and I’d be fine with it. But if your answer is skinny, I have a problem.
Maybe it’s just a semantic overreaction on my part (it wouldn’t be the first time), but I intensely dislike the word skinny when applied to human beings. I have no issue with a skinny latte (I’ve consumed many of them) or skinny jeans or skinny as an adjective describing a low-calorie recipe.
But please, ladies, let’s not aspire to have skinny bodies. Let’s work to become lean and strong–special emphasis on the word strong.
What’s the difference?
Skinny conjures up images of Twiggy (if you’re as old as I am, you’ll remember this waiflike model of the late 1960s), of the half-starved children employed in American workhouses of the 1920s, of the frail arms or legs revealed when a cast is cut away after weeks of immobility.
Skinny means weak, starved, frail, bony, and small.
Strong, on the other hand, connotes being capable, vigorous, energetic, and fit. Sexy too, in my opinion.
Are we so terrified of our own muscles that we’d really rather be skinny than strong?
I got to thinking about this after reading an excellent post by registered dietitian Janet Helm on webmd.com.
She leads off by saying
I recently heard a radio commercial for a diet pill that promised to get you “high school skinny.” It just struck me how often I’m hearing the word “skinny” these days. When did skinny become the new ideal?
A bit further down, she quotes another dietitian, Marsha Hudnall, who says, “This is a pursuit of an unrealistic ideal that leads to loss of productivity and ultimately ill health, whether from attempts to reach this unrealistic ideal or just from the stress of it all and the unhappiness it generates.”
You know I’m all about healthy fat loss, but for some of us, leanness is a goal that’s going to take a whole lot of doing. We can’t all get lean in a short period of time.
But we can all get stronger–and pretty quickly–presuming we have the use of at least some of our limbs.
My challenge to you today is this: Can you start playing with the idea of valuing strength over skinniness? The inherent reward is that if you can embrace that mind shift, you can also begin to enjoy the daily process of living a stronger life.
Why delay gratification until you reach a state of “skinniness”? You can start valuing your strength-and your muscles–right now.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Male perspective/Professional trainer perspective:
I ask my clients not to use the word, “skinny”. I actually find it offensive and contrary to success. If they wish to approach that concept, I ask they use the word, “thin”, but even then I prefer not to hear it.
Oprah is famous for saying, “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” In that one sentence she waged ward on the psyche of millions of women. Not good.
Twitter: themusclediva
January 5, 2012 at 11:57 am
Hey, Roy—
Glad to hear that a man also hates those terms. I don’t like thin either . . . and if you think about it, Oprah has never been either skinny or thin. I’m not being insulting—just saying that even when she was lean, she had some shape and some muscle mass, and that was a good thing. So it’s a compliment to say she was lean and curvy but never skinny.
I’m told that the “nothing tastes as good as skinny [or thin] feels” is a mantra among anorexics. Yikes.
Mary C. Weaver, CSCS recently posted..Why you can keep the weight off
Twitter: saraharrow
January 5, 2012 at 9:30 am
I don’t what it feels like to be strong, I have never been strong. But I have been skinny and I know what that feels like, I can visualise that whereas I can’t visualise strong unless it’s muscle bound!
Sarah Arrow recently posted..How to get fit on the cheap
Twitter: themusclediva
January 5, 2012 at 12:01 pm
Oh, Sarah, I’m going to have so much fun training you when we meet in New York this summer. Bwahahahahahahaha!
Strong feels delicious, let me assure you.
Twitter: WorkoutNirvana
January 5, 2012 at 9:38 am
Skinny is a loaded word. I was called skinny growing up because I was literally skin-and-bones thin. I’ve witnessed skinny fat first-hand in my job and it’s interesting to see a thin runner’s reaction. I like “lean”… it implies muscle
. Great post!
Suzanne recently posted..Step Up to Strong, Sexy Glutes
Twitter: themusclediva
January 5, 2012 at 12:05 pm
Thanks!
OK, so let me ask you your opinion as a female fitness professional: Why is it that so many women want to be “skinny”?