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Step classes, spinning, slide aerobics and power yoga are just a few of the dozens of exercise fads that have popped up in the past 20 years. Not to mention home regimes like Nordictrack, Soloflex and Thigh Master. There are countless diets such as Atkins, South Beach and Hollywood Cookie that end up on best seller lists and infomercials for a moment until the next one comes along. And yet with all these products and plans our relationship to our bodies and to food and exercise has become increasingly more hostile and unhealthy. Clearly fad diets and fad exercise plans don't work in the long run.
Obesity and type 2 diabetes are on the rise as are eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. New nutrition label guidelines aren't helping. Scandals about already emaciated models being photo shopped to be even thinner aren't deterring desires for unattainable bodies or helping with warped body images. And all the advances in weight loss surgeries are providing a quick fix leaving many with pounds of extra skin and no knowledge of how to keep the weight off. Fat women are unhealthy and often unhappy even if they extol how much they love their "curves" and thin women wake up every morning staring at their imperfections wishing to be just a little more toned. There are the people who don't care about their health or weight and shovel fast food into their mouths while sitting in traffic. And there are those who obsess about every calorie, do ridiculous cleanses which amount to starvation and grill waiters about the oil content in an egg white omelet. It seems no one, fat or thin, is enjoying life or its daily sustenance, which is food. Is anyone happy? I thought not until this weekend when I entered the most joyous place I have ever been, Richard Simmons' studio Slimmons in Beverly Hills.
There were men and women of all different ages, races, religions, sexual orientations and most importantly, sizes, beaming as they walked through the door into the cheery bright studio. They were captivated by Simmons' unending energy and charisma and they were exercising, moving, dancing, laughing and sweating like nothing mattered but that very moment. I was immediately caught up in the incredible sense of being in the present and quickly forgot that I was exercising to attain some other goal. For me, and most people, it's always for some other goal: to lose weight, to fit into a pair of jeans, to look great for an event, to prove an ex wrong. For the first time I was exercising because it filled me not with the usual anxiety, but with joy.
I looked at the faces around me and saw for that hour everyone there was also exercising because it too filled them with joy. No one was waging war on their bodies, punishing him or herself for being overweight or striving for perfection. Amazingly, no one was giving that all too familiar sideways judgmental glance or showing off. Everyone was just doing his or her best. It was a much-needed break from a normal Los Angeles day of self-doubt and ego plumping and instilled a sense of happiness without complacency.
Simmons has been the punch line of many jokes since he busted onto the scene in 1974 and he'll be the first to say he doesn't mind if people are laughing at him, as long as they are laughing. The first person to open a fitness center that breeds acceptance rather than shame, Simmons has endured decades of fads because what he is selling isn't a fad at all, but an attitude. Love yourself enough to take care of yourself, which simply means eat healthy foods, break a sweat and allow exercise to be joyous. If you do that no matter where you are, as many of his fans will attest to, the fat comes off and stays off.
