New Year’s Resolutions (and Putting One Foot in Front of Another)

It’s said that the story behind this film began on a couch.

“Brittany Runs A Marathon,” available on Amazon Prime, is a story inspired by true events in the life of Brittany O’Neill, couch potato turned marathoner, as written and directed by her roommate Paul Downs Colaizzo.

O’Neill was working in what she felt was a dead-end job, worn down by long nights of drinking, and a health crisis brought about by an unhealthy lifestyle. She knew she needed to break out of the cycle, by doing something productive. Something productive, but also easy to start.

However, she didn’t have any physical activity she could just return to doing, because she didn’t grow up playing any kind of sport.

The easiest thing to do was run.

And why not?

If you can walk, you can run.  One foot in front of the other, and you’re good to go.

In the film, it was an alarming trip to the doctor that nudged Brittany to make some changes, not the discussion of an existential crisis with her roommate.

One day, Brittany decided she would run a block.

Some time later, she joins the New York City Marathon.

It’s a truly inspiring film, showing that any of us can make our health situations better. Even become athletes.

Fair warning though, when you watch this, the heavily caricatured film version of Brittany will grate on your nerves at times.

Yes, she’s relatable: sedentary, is not a fitness buff, has poor eating habits and a career going nowhere. She’s even funny at times. But she’s also portrayed as really prickly.

She’s instantly defensive, almost angry, when people try to lend her a helping hand, refusing any form of “pity,” even when these are friends who obviously mean well.

She’s obnoxious to perfectly happy people who happen to be overweight, humiliating them because she feels that they should feel worse about themselves, like she did when she was overweight.

Brittany wasn’t going to win any awards for Ms. Congeniality, nor could she even be described as a reasonably pleasant person.

In the film, there is not a single person who body-shames her, and all of the negativity was self-inflicted.  But it may have been due to the armor built through several years of being called fat.

While you won't see the culture of body-shaming in the story, it was something that came to mind as I watched Brittany react to her environment with hyper-vigilance.

I thought about the armor, and how people feel when called fat. 

How do people feel when they’re called fat?

Especially women.  Women probably have the worst internal chatter of all about bodies and personal lives. Why is there an implicit societal expectation that women should maintain their bodies regardless of their age or life stage anyway?

It’s likely they don’t just hear “You’re fat” or “You’ve gotten fat.”

Internal negative chatter would also add…

“You’re unattractive.”

“You’re lazy.”

“You can’t take care of yourself.”

“If you can’t take care of yourself, how can you take care of anybody else?”

And guilt would involuntarily bubble to the surface, from one thoughtless comment.

Body-shamers just feel entitled to have a say in other people’s bodies.  They don’t think about whether the person they’re calling fat has a health condition and is taking medications causing them to gain weight, an eating disorder, or difficult personal situations causing them to stress-eat or lead a sedentary lifestyle. This is the invisible, submerged part of the iceberg.  

Filipino culture with regards to fatphobia, is particularly more thoughtless and toxic.  Whispering about fat people in public, especially for wearing something thinner people normally wear.  Shaming new mothers for gaining weight.  Greeting their own friends how fat they’d gotten before asking how their friend was doing.

But no matter how your body is built...

Isn’t it of more value to actually be healthy?  Even monetarily, being healthy keeps you out of the hospital.

Isn’t it more useful to be strong?  Being strong has a lot more practical applications, like loading a 5-gallon water container onto a dispenser on your own.

Isn’t it better to be someone who feels good about yourself than someone who needs external validation?   People are fickle, so there's no harm in liking yourself for real.

Losing weight for health reasons is good, but losing weight for the approval of people is usually an exercise in futility.  If you lost touch with that person who called you fat and s/he isn’t able to see the new, thinner you, would that make your achievement any less?  Of course not!

Everyone’s journey to health is different.  For some, the struggle is gaining weight (though “thin-shaming” is not quite as prevalent as its counterpart).

"Brittany Runs A Marathon" isn't a makeover movie where changing her looks magically fixes her job and love life; but a realistic journey from her epiphany, to her newfound passion of running, better health, vitality, and confidence, which all led to positive effects on her personal life and her career.

It shows us that introducing what seems like a small, positive habit can turn out to be a game-changer.

What do you think can be a game-changer in your life?

Is it stopping negative internal chatter in its tracks?

Is it making an effort to make friends at work?

Is it, like our titular heroine, taking a small step for your health that could eventually turn your life around?

January is a time when all things seem possible, and when New Year’s Resolutions are born.  However, the next month, February, is when New Year’s Resolutions die, so it seems.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

We have an ebook about scientific ways to build good habits and break bad ones here!