Anti-Inspiration

Part of the reason I'm starting this blog is that I have been subscribing to Fitness Magazine for nearly 2 years, and as time passes my dislike for the magazine grows. I hope that blogging will replenish the motivation that drained away as I read this magazine month after month.

If I were to write a letter to explain why I'm not renewing my subscription (or canceling the subscription I have), here is what I would write:

Dear Fitness Magazine,

Although your magazine contains a wealth of information about health and fitness, I am canceling my subscription. Each month after reading a great number of articles focused on physical appearance and dietary deprivation, I would feel diminished self confidence. Reading articles about people with diets so strict that their afternoon snack consisted of 7 cashews made me crave a heaping bowl of ice cream. Likewise, I could not find inspiration in stories such as "A Better Body at Any Size" when each month the magazine's cover showed a new skinny model/actress/whomever wearing a bikini and standing on a beach. (Month to month, I found the covers to be virtually indistinguishable. Each month I hoped that maybe, just maybe, this issue would feature a cover that actually showed someone exercising!)

I crave fitness to improve my cardiovascular health and strengthen my bones and muscles. It is my hope that fitness will protect me from a number of health-related problems as I age. I'm looking for a magazine without a focus on physical appearance and diets. The magazine I will subscribe to will instead focuses on how to improve health through fitness, and how to have fun doing so. While healthy eating habits and nutrition will be discussed, the word diet will never appear. Instead of reading how to get the perfect bikini body, I will read about how to build strength, increase flexibility, and improve endurance. It may not be as sexy. But it is what motivates me.

As far as I can tell, no magazine like this exists. That's why I'm starting this blog.