In the late nineties and early noughties, wellness wasn’t a thing. Vegans were weirdos, yoga was for hippies and shakes weren’t “immune boosting” or “detoxing”, they were what you got after a big night out.
In the world of glossy magazines, thin was in. Kate Moss famously said, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” and staying sample size was the number one priority for the models and celebrities I worked with daily.
We magazine girls wanted to fit into those outfits too, so we carefully monitored our food consumption. That said, I mostly failed to get into those fashion cupboard clothes because I liked boozy nights out and jacket potatoes too much.
In the nineties, models, celebrities and mere mortals didn’t get super slim by following a balanced diet with lean protein, slow-release carbs and plenty of veggies. No, it was about copious Diet Coke and Marlboros.
Sugar was somehow okay to eat because if you looked on the back of the packet of Frosties or Party Rings, there weren’t a high number of calories. It hadn’t occurred to us all that sugar would be converted to fat.
So accepted was sugar that they even handed out Chupa Chups lollies backstage at the fashion shows.
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Bridget Jones’ battle with her body image was representative of so many of us. We all had a calorie counter ticker taping in our heads. Toast plus a biscuit in the office, plus Pret sandwich plus seven cocktails and accompanying bowls of nuts = 3,000 calories = self-loathing.
To counter such excess, we would then go on horrendous diets such as the cabbage soup diet, the cayenne pepper diet, and the Atkins diet. And do depleting spin/legs bums and tums sessions till we thought we were going to pass out.
Despite all the angst, all the sweat, and all the deprivation I still didn’t look how I wanted. And I suspect Victoria Beckham, who recently said she feels stronger now than in her twenties, when she said she was “addicted” to green juice, was equally dispirited.
VB and I are both now 50, and we have changed up our approach to exercise.
© InstagramWhen it comes to exercise, Victoria says she’s her strongest ever now, and I think she looks happier in her body. She says she now does weights rather than cardio in her five weekly personal training sessions.
I still run with my dog, but using my own body weight (think press ups, triceps dips using a chair) plus free weights in twice-weekly workouts has changed the way I look and feel. Creating muscle means my body burns more calories at rest, which means I can eat more food.
Ahh calories. I don’t have a running total in my head like I used to. I’m just trying to eat nutritious foods that haven’t been too messed about with. To quote author Michael Pollen: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
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Of course, I don’t think VB has changed tact completely. She says she is still “Very disciplined with the way that I eat, the way that I work out and the way I work. That’s just who I am.’
© Photo: InstagramThere are many who would question if she is too slim. But it does feel like she has relaxed a little and arrived at her desired shape in a better way. I’ll leave the final words to her.
“I’m not going to be one of these, ‘Ah, there are too many calories in a glass of wine,’ types. Life’s too short. Let’s have a nice time.”
Cheers to that.
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This is a warning for all avid gym-goers.
Fitness enthusiast Hillary Nguyen recently shared a video on TikTok describing the health crisis she dealt with after interacting dirty gym equipment.
“PSA to all my gym girlies, if you’re not wiping down every single piece of equipment before you use it you’re gonna want to start,” Nguyen said, per Daily Dot, in a clip shared on the now-defunct video-sharing platform.
“Three months ago I discovered that I had scalp ringworm and it literally made go bald,” she explained
Nguyen continued, “That same day I went to the doctor’s and they did a black light test on me and that’s how they discovered that it was ringworm. She asked me if I go to the gym and I said basically every day, so that was most likely why.”
In another video, Nguyen said that her scalp improved after three months of treatment.
Nguyen’s first video had over 40,000 likes and over 491,000 views on Saturday before TikTok was shut down that night following a temporary federal ban on the app.
Viewers weighed in on her PSA about gym sanitation in the comments section.
“I sanitize my phone with alcohol wipes and wash my hands right after the gym. I’m so scared to catch something!!! No one wipes stuff down at my gym,” one person wrote.
Another said, “Well new fear re-unlocked. I do wipe all equipment but this was like not an active conscious thought about ringworm avoidance til now.”
Someone else commented, “I got ringworm from the mats at my gym a while back it sucked! Def bring wipes and disinfectant if you can [i know] some gyms don’t keep up with it like they should.”
According to the American Academy of Dermatology Association (AAD), people are at risk of getting ringworm at the gym.
“This is because bacteria, viruses, and fungi that cause skin infections to develop, thrive in warm, moist places like sweaty exercise equipment and locker room showers,” the AAD’s website says.
The AAD recommends several tips for preventing skin infections at the gym, including wearing loose-fitting, moisture-wicking clothes, always wearing shoes, disinfecting equipment before and after using it, washing or sanitizing your hands immediately after working out, and showering as soon as possible.
Published 4:00 am Sunday, January 19, 2025
Like a lot of people, I made a New Year’s resolution to exercise more, lose a little weight, and get into shape.
All right, “resolve” might be a strong word. Let’s call it a desire to get a little more value for my $50 a month gym membership than the once-a-month visits that became the norm in 2024.
For a while I’ve been stuck in the fitness paradox. When starting a regimen your muscles hurt after a workout so you want to rest, but the more you exercise the less they’ll hurt. Give it a couple of weeks and you’ll power through it.
It’s one of the biggest hurdles to getting into shape, and one I was reminded of again this week. I hit the pool for a modest 2,000-yard swimming workout, my first since Christmas, and had to grind hard to finish the last half of it. If I’d been in the water a couple times a week it would not have been nearly as taxing.
Time and work are big obstacles to exercising, of course. Especially this time of year. Getting home at 5 or 6 p.m. as the sun is setting and the temperature is dropping limits the neighborhood walks that are an easy way to burn calories. Covering a basketball game at Vicksburg High once a week and trekking up the hill from the parking lot in the dark isn’t going to cut it.
Another roadblock, for me at least, is other people.
I’m primarily a lap swimmer, so access to an indoor pool is the main reason I joined my gym. Unfortunately, it also means everyone else has access.
Besides other lap swimmers, that pool is used for children’s lessons and water aerobics classes.
When you lap swim you can’t see what’s in front of you — you look down, not ahead — so you’re trusting other people to watch out for you. Young kids trying to stay afloat have bigger concerns than avoiding you, so you need to develop a high level of ESP to avoid smashing into them like a torpedo into the side of a destroyer. It’s stressful.
The water aerobics folks have been nice and friendly when we’ve crossed paths — maybe a little too friendly. They tend to hang out and float for a while after their classes and get chatty. I don’t want to be rude, but also don’t want to swap life stories and recipes when I’m trying to stay on an interval and in rhythm.
The water aerobics folks have also scheduled thrice-weekly evening classes from 6 to 7 p.m., which is primetime for a post-work workout. I have to leave work early and go in the middle of the afternoon, or squeeze in a late swim and hope the gym managers don’t decide to lock up early.
Getting forgotten about and trapped in the pool overnight is a weird but not irrational fear, right?
I know there are more forms of exercise than swimming, and I probably need to explore those and stop making excuses. Hit the exercise bike or treadmill, for crying out loud. Lift a weight heavier than a 12-ounce Coke can.
Or just complain and rant. That burns calories, too.
•
Ernest Bowker is the sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com
Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post’s sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post’s sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper’s 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.
More by Ernest
Exercising regularly is important for preventing dementia. But if it’s hard to rack up the recommended amount of activity during the five-day work week (150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, like brisk walking, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, like swimming), consider the “weekend warrior” approach — fitting it all into one or two weekly sessions. The approach might offer the same brain health benefits, according to a study published online Oct. 29, 2024, by the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Researchers analyzed the health and self-reported activity information of more than 10,000 dementia-free people in Mexico who were followed for about 16 years. After accounting for factors that could influence the results, such as lifestyle habits, scientists found that weekend warriors were 13% less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a precursor to dementia, compared with people who didn’t exercise — about the same benefit seen in those who exercised during the work week. While the study was observational and can’t prove cause and effect, it supports the idea that even less frequent exercise might help protect brain health, and it might be a more convenient option for busy people.
Image: © Luis Alvarez/Getty Images
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