If you grew up in the 90s or early 2000s, you probably remember the way fitness and health were sold to us.
Magazines promised “Lose 10 pounds in 10 days.” SnackWell’s fat-free cookies flew off shelves in the name of “guilt-free” eating. SlimFast shakes and the Special K diet became quick fix solutions, marketed as if they were the holy grail of health. Phrases that were etched into my brain as a kid, teen, and young adult were “If You Rest, You Rust,” a banner hanging up in my gymnastics gym, Buns of Steel VHS tape had an instructor say “Squeeze those cheeseburgers out of your thighs,” “The shake is your fat cells crying,” Pure Barre in the early 2000’s told me, “The higher the heels, the thinner your thighs.” And then came the rise of reality TV shows like The Biggest Loser, which turned weight loss into primetime entertainment.
We were told that wellness was about discipline, sacrifice, and suffering. The louder you pushed, the thinner you became, the more “worthy” you were. Looking back, it wasn’t wellness at all, it was control.
The Biggest Loser and the Jillian Michaels Era
Last week I watched Netflix’s Fit For TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser, which was about the TV show The Biggest Loser. The docuseries pulls back the curtain on just how toxic this show really was. Trainers like Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper became household names by screaming at contestants, berating them, and pushing their bodies to the breaking point. Some puking, fainting, falling, and a few being rushed to the hospital.
Millions of viewers watched contestants collapse on treadmills, cry under pressure, and push through injuries, and we thought, Wow, that’s what it takes to get healthy.
But what it really did was glorify shame, humiliation, and overtraining. Contestants left with injuries, disordered eating patterns, or slowed metabolisms that haunted them long after the cameras stopped rolling.
Conditioned to Ignore Our Bodies, From Childhood
When I really think about it, this wasn’t the first time we were taught to override our bodies.
It started earlier. Even as children in school, if we had to go to the bathroom, we had to raise our hand and ask permission, and most of the time during class, the answer was “no”, wait until between classes or go at lunch. I get it, some kids abused the bathroom pass but sometimes kids actually had to go and we were told no.
From a young age, we learned that listening to our body wasn’t valid unless someone else approved it. We learned to silence natural needs and push through discomfort.
Is it any wonder then that as adults, so many of us learned to ignore our body’s signals with health, wellness, and fitness? To push harder in yoga when we felt dizzy, to “finish the workout” even when our joints ached, to train on no sleep, no fuel, or no energy, and even sometimes sick because somewhere deep down we believed listening to ourselves was weakness.
This conditioning runs deep, but I truly believe our body’s signals are wisdom, it’s our intuition, it’s our inner knowing. They aren’t inconveniences, they aren’t flaws, they are your compass.
My Experience: Hot Power Yoga & OCD With Fitness
For me, this culture wasn’t just something I watched on TV, it was seeping into my own life. I spent years over exercising, working out multiple times a day, and struggling with OCD tendencies. Rest days didn’t exist. Missing a workout filled me with guilt and anxiety. It looked like discipline from the outside, but it was really fear and anxiety running the show.
Hot power yoga was one of my go to escapes. The classes were heated, intense, and I craved that. But this one instructors reinforced the same messaging I’d internalized. I can still hear her yelling,
“Don’t you dare come out of this pose. If you quit here, you’ll quit in life.” or one class I was dripping sweat and picked up my towel to wipe my face and she yelled at me to get back in the pose and drop my towel then telling the class no one touches our towels the rest of class.
That era left many of us disconnected from ourselves.
- Exercise became punishment— something you did to make up for food. Oh I ate too much over the weekend I need to workout hard on Monday and Tuesday. Oh the Holidays are coming up I need to work out extra so I can enjoy Thanksgiving and all the treats in December. I drank too much over the weekend now I need to sweat out the toxins and workout really hard.
- Rest was weakness— rest days weren’t celebrated, they were shamed. You’re fine, suck it up. You can rest when you’re dead.
- Listening to your body was dismissed— trainers, TV, and ads told us they knew better than we did.
I don’t think it was about health at all. It was about hustle, appearance, and control.
Thankfully, things are shifting. Research and lived experience show us a different path:
- Rest and recovery are essential.Your muscles, hormones, and nervous system rebuild and regulate when you pause.
- Movement should add energy, not drain it.Workouts can leave you feeling stronger, calmer, and more alive, not depleted.
- Mental health matters.Over exercising fuels anxiety and stress. Gentle, joyful movement can heal.
- Listening to your body is powerful.Honoring your intuition builds resilience and sustainability.
We get to rewrite our relationship with with fitness and movement.
- Fitness isn’t punishment. It’s empowerment.
- The “best” workout is the one that feels good and supports your life, not one that leaves you collapsed on the floor.
- Rest days are training days. They are just as important as the workout itself.
- Your worth has never been tied to your body size, how many calories you burned, or how much you sweat.
If you, like me, came of age in that 90s/2000s era, give yourself compassion. We were raised in a culture that told us to ignore our bodies and equated thinness with value.
But we know better now. We can model something different for ourselves and for our daughters, nieces, and the next generation, strength comes from alignment, that rest is resilience, and that joy belongs in movement.
So the next time you roll out your mat, lace up your sneakers, or step into the gym, ask yourself:
Am I moving out of love for my body, or fear of it?
That single shift can change everything.
And that docuseries Fit For TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser, I forgot how mean and horrible Jillian Michaels was and I never realized until rewatching it just how mean Bob Harper was too. That isn’t ok. As a yoga and fitness instructor, know this…. A trainer should not treat you that way! EVER!
Nikki Lanigan
Nikki Lanigan is a yoga, HIIT, and Barre instructor, she is also a Holistic Health Coach through Institute of Integrative Nutrition. Nikki is trained in Yoga Shred, Yoga Psychology, meditation, chakra balancing, and EFT/Tapping. She has done trainings with Sadie Nardini and Ashley Turner. She got her 200 hour yoga teacher training in 2017 at the Carrie Treister School Of Yoga. Nikki takes a holistic view of health, helping her students and clients reach a place of self-love not just through movement, but with mindset and lifestyle guidance as well. Nikki is also show prep writer for The McVay Media Show Prep and host of the podcast Fit, Fun, and Frazzled. Connect with Nikki on Instagram. www.instagram.com/nikkilanigan.yogaandwellness www.instagram.com/fitfunandfrazzledpodcast
