Two thoughts on reading Gretchen's post about the Time article on weight loss & exercise:

1 - Thank you for reinforcing that the benefits of exercise -- improved physical fitness and an emotional boost* -- can accrue irrespective of weight/size change, and that thin, medium and fat people can and do pursue exercise.

It's disappointing that exercise, active recreation, etc., are "sold" as a weight-loss method, rather than for their intrinsic value. This bothers me for two reasons. First, because if people hope to become thinner, and don't, despite increased fitness, they may become discouraged and stop exercising. Second, when people simplistically believe "exercise makes you thin!", it's a slippery slope toward the assumption that all fat people are lazy and slothful nonexercisers. Lots of fat people do exercise! (And lots don't, just as lots of thin people don't.)

2 - Re: the "license to consume treats" idea.I wonder if that's because our culture has confounded both food and exercise with morality such that people believe "treats"=bad and "toilsome exercise"=good. It's as if they feel they're "buying" special dispensation or "indulgences" (as the church used to literally sell during medieval times) with their "virtuous" exercise -- all extremely morality-loaded concepts.

If we could decouple food and exercise from morality, maybe we could undertake exercise (or sports, or active rec, whatever) for its own sake and benefits, while also chosing food that we like for its health benefits and pleasures (and yes, that could include a Snickers bar as well as salad sometimes!). All without shame and quasi-religious moral judgment, but instead each individual's simple discernment about what's best for himself/herself.