On last night’s episode of The Biggest Loser, the contestants travelled to Washington, D.C. where they completed a series of challenges, visited the White House (click here for a salad recipe from the Obamas’ chef) and also spoke to Congress about the importance of health education in American schools. Contestant Daniel spoke about the lack of self confidence he felt as a chubby high school kid, and how school curriculum should encourage more physical activity.
As a former chubby kid myself, this gave me pause. Would I have been skinnier if I was encouraged to exercise more at school? Good question.
When you’re chubby, the less time you spend in shorts in front of your class, the better. And on top of being chubby, I was horribly uncoordinated, incredibly shy and terrified of the athletic and crazy-competitive girls in my gym class. (Honestly, I still feel nervous when I happen to bump into one of them.) I never found an activity I truly loved until a few years ago, when I joined the Running Room and trained for my first half-marathon. Only then did I wish I had been more active in school – but not in a competitive sports kind of way, which was the only option at the time. Are there any non-competitive activity groups in schools these days? I know that definitely would have helped me.
Speaking of running, I was out with a friend a few months ago when I (literally) ran into one of those athletic girls from grade eight. My friend mentioned we were training for a half marathon and the athletic girl looked at me and said (rather disbelievingly, I might add,) “You run half-marathons?” I can’t tell you how good it felt to say yes. If only my 13-year-old self could have been there.
