The Elephant in the Gym: Your Body-Positive Guide to Writing Your Own Health and Fitness Story | 
so-soI have mixed feelings about this book. I certainly wouldn‘t call it body-positive. I couldn‘t help rolling my eyes at all the “feel empowered to get to your goal weight” and the talk of body composition. This is just the term “body-positive” being hijacked and used in opposition to what it‘s actually meant to be. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
GingerAntics I like the idea of a personal health spectrum, with nonnegotiable things for when life is really crazy and more things for when things are calmer. I liked the discussion about not using the scale as a metric for progress (even though weight loss was discussed A LOT). Not sure how that goes together, honestly. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 4y
GingerAntics This had some serious religious undertones I could have done without. It‘s called “spirituality” within the book (which I‘m down for), but the language used is religious. Apparently prayer and church are good habits for your new healthy lifestyle! No word on how abusive church leaders contribute to one‘s health. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 (edited) 4y
GingerAntics Another issue I had with this book was the constant plugging of the online resources on her website which require you to sign up for her email list. At times, it was at the end of every paragraph. Mention it once and then stick it in the back. If people want to sign up for your email list they will. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 4y
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GingerAntics As a person with anxiety, I wasn‘t a fan of her assessment of the fight, flight, or freeze response (basically they‘re each just a different layer of self-centred thinking). That may be how she experiences those three instinctual responses, but it‘s not how everyone does and certainly not people who literally have a mental health issue. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 4y
GingerAntics Clearly she has little knowledge of mental health, but she will tell you how she‘s decided you should achieve mental health. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 4y
GingerAntics I can‘t say I‘d actually recommend this book. I might recommend the first chapter, but that‘s about it. After that, it quickly deteriorated into a book that is hardly distinctive from 99.9% of the books on this subject. #GillianGoerzen #TheElephantInTheGym #bodypositive #fitness 4y
Branwen Sorry this wasn't as enjoyable as you were hoping it would be! 4y
GingerAntics @Branwen I should know, by now, to avoid these things, but I always hope “this book” is different. It rarely ever is. It did have one thing I will incorporate into my life, so I guess it wasn‘t a total wash. 4y
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