It’s Okay to Love Chocolate

Day in and day out, we are exposed to narratives about our physical bodies – how we should or shouldn’t look, what we should or shouldn’t feed our bodies, what the “perfect body” looks like, how to sculpt/contour/enhance/remove our features to achieve a societal definition of what beauty is. There are movements and campaigns that aim to change our views of what the “ideal” body is, focusing on inward beauty and overall health, rather than the superficial, starved and unrealistic portrayals of beauty. Unfortunately, these campaigns are few, and can’t change the opposing negative messages that constantly infiltrate our brains.

I have become very sensitive to how beauty and health are represented, not only in the various forms of media that I am exposed to on a daily basis, but also my daily interactions with people, especially in and around the yoga studio. Obviously, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and in my opinion, yoga is about accepting your body, loving your body, honouring your body, and taking care of your body. It is absolutely not about punishing your body, for eating too much, eating what you shouldn’t, or for looking the way you think it shouldn’t. Yoga (and all exercise, really), is a celebration of the body that carries you through life, allows you to move, and encapsulates your being. So when I am in a yoga (or fitness class), and the instructor tells me the crunches we are doing are burning off all the treats, or that we come to yoga class to get a “yoga body,” I get angry. I get distracted from my practice and mentally craft monologues about how toxic and dangerous it is to treat exercise like a punishment, or espousing that a yoga body is a thing, and we go to yoga so that we can look like we go to yoga. Let’s be clear: every body is a yoga body. Every body can do yoga. You do not have to be flexible or able to do a handstand in order to be a yogi. So telling me that there is some kind of yoga body we are all searching for is ridiculous, because, as noted, if you go to yoga, you have a yoga body.

This is important because we are all impressionable. Even if we think we aren’t, the words of someone we look up to, someone who inspires and motivates us like a fitness or yoga instructor, can impact how we look at ourselves and our bodies. So when you tell me I need to do more crunches because I had chocolate today, not only are you shaming my food choices, you are telling me that I need to burn it off or else I’m fat. You may think I am being dramatic, or overly sensitive, but I know first-hand how one mis-worded phrase from someone who is important to us in some way, can alter how we look at ourselves and how we treat and nourish our bodies. Eating disorders are far too common; there is too much idealization surrounding how our bodies should look. And when we don’t look like society tells us we should, we punish ourselves. We take something healthy, like exercise, and turn it into a punishment. We turn food, something that we need to survive, and turn it into the enemy.

And social media only exacerbates the problem. We are inundated with videos, posts, photos, etc., of people showing off their bodies, amping up the latest diet or exercise program, or shaming the food choices of other people. I saw this one post where someone had written down the caloric value of different halloween treats, and then put next to each how many squats, pushups, burpees, etc., one needs to do to burn those treats off. I unfollowed this person instantly for sharing what I think is a toxic message: that exercise is a punishment for treating ourselves, and thus insinuating that we don’t deserve treats and we do deserve punishment. Newsflash, we are allowed to have chocolate, we are allowed to drink wine, we are allowed to have chips and pizza. No one deserves to be shamed for their food choices. It’s all about balance and treating our bodies with respect. Nurturing your body with healthy food choices like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and proteins is important to our physical health. But for our mental and emotional well-being, we are allowed to treat ourselves. Deprivation solves nothing and fosters unhappiness. If we start eating junk food all day every day, it is absolutely a health concern, but once in a while is necessary for most of us to keep our sanity. It really is all about moderation. And yet, we are told that we shouldn’t “put that poison” in our bodies when it comes to junk food, and if we do we better do an extra ten minutes on the treadmill to work it off. That attitude is dangerous and it needs to change. If we can change the message, we can, ideally, prevent people from developing eating disorders, especially young people who are incredibly impressionable and absorb all the messages we put out there. We need to send out the message that we exercise and eat healthy to celebrate our bodies and treat our bodies with respect. And that a little chocolate is good for healing the soul (if you don’t believe me, read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).