‘I exercise for 12 hours a week and will never diet again’
Yoga instructor Miriam Zendle, 36, is single and lives in Surrey. She weighs 21st and says she feels great. She says, “Exercise is key to both mental and physical health. I acknowledge I’m fat – at
5ft 2 and weighing 21st, it’s indisputable. But I’m fit, too. At my latest health checkup my blood pressure and cholesterol were both perfect and I have no warning signs of type two diabetes.
“I’m a yoga instructor and teach at least four classes a week. I also do body pump classes twice a week, walk every day, as well as Pilates, cycling and swimming on a weekly basis. I do at least 12 hours of exercise a week and can happily run up the stairs without being out of breath and none of my joints ache. I also eat a balanced diet, I love cheese, but I hate chocolate. I don’t smoke and I rarely drink alcohol.
“I’m almost certainly healthier than some people – you can be thin and eat terribly and fat and eat well.
“I think my size is partly genetic. To make a blanket statement that anyone who’s fat can’t be fit is wrong and damaging and follows a narrative that leads to fat phobia and fat shaming.
“We need to help people accept their different shapes, sizes and abilities and make them feel better about themselves so that they have the confidence to exercise.
“I’ve always been active and enjoyed sports. I’ve been called a ‘fat bitch’ while cycling – people think it’s OK to insult and ridicule me as they’re constantly told ‘fat is bad’.
“It’s one of the reasons I became a qualified yoga teacher in 2019. I’d been a fan of it since 2010 and I wanted to teach classes that were absolutely free of judgement and showed size is no arbiter of ability.
“One day a very petite friend of mine came to do a class with me. Then a woman came in to do the class and presumed my friend must be the teacher – that’s the sort of prejudice I want to break down.
“I feel we need to shift the emphasis away from dieting. Ninety-five per cent of those who lose weight go on to regain more.
“I started gaining weight in secondary school, and through most of my adult life I was around 15st. Outside pressures made me feel that I should diet. I started in
2015 and began exercising excessively – sometimes I’d do three classes in a row. I also counted calories obsessively. I did lose a few stone but then once I stopped dieting and exercising so rigidly, I put it all back on –plus more.
“Dieting is not healthy and I don’t think an emphasis on weight is healthy for anyone either. If you force people to diet, be it through direct orders or implications, then there is a negative impact on mental health.
“Now I’ve disassociated myself from dieting culture both my mental and physical health have improved. I accept how I look, I enjoy my life and I feel great.
“I want everyone to accept that we come in all shapes and sizes and you can’t make sweeping statements about those measurements. We are all individuals.”
● For more information, go to lityoga.co.uk. You can follow Miriam on Instagram @lityogalife