8 D THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2020WITH THE EXPLOSIONof lockdown-
friendly home exercise programs
and advice, it may seem as if it’s
never been easier to work out at
home. But the reality is, it’s proba-
bly never been harder. For every
person posting a sweaty “crushed
it” selfie on Instagram, there’s
another one (or four) just trying to
endure pandemic-induced stress.
Add in constant access to the
refrigerator and a pantry over-
stocked with panic buys, and the
guilt about what we’ve eaten — or
the exercise we haven’t done —
piles on faster than you can say
“Quarantine 15.”
“So you’ve gained weight,” said
Elyse Resch, a nutrition therapist.
“So what? You’re alive. We’re
doing the best we can with the
resources we have.” (Not to men-
tion many others straining under
severe challenges, like significant
health concerns and financial
worries.)
You, too, can shrug off minor or
moderate weight gain or the loss
of your pre-pandemic fitness level.
Read on.BREAK THE CYCLE
Above all, have compassion. “I
don’t think most people change
their minds by being yelled at or
punched in the face, but that’s how
we talk to ourselves,” said
Phoenix Jackson, a clinical psy-
chologist who specializes in
trauma. When Ms. Jackson is
having trouble speaking to herself
as kindly as she might a beloved
friend, she likes to find a photo of
herself as a child and think of how
gently she’d like that person to be
spoken to.
Next, recognize that weight and
ambitious exercise regimens may
offer the illusion of control in a
world that seems out of control,
but the anxiety they produce is
not helpful. This is part of a larger
problem: Most of us feel pressure
to achieve or maintain a certain
body size because we’ve been
taught that it’s important. Excess
weight has been linked to consid-
erable health risks, though it does
not, by definition, mean a person
is unhealthy. Unfortunately, fat-
phobia promotes just the oppo-
site: Fat people are denied health
care, earn less money at work and
have a harder time finding work in
the first place, research has
shown.“Break the cycle by asking
yourself where you learned that
weight gain was something to be
ashamed of,” Paula Freedman, a
clinical psychologist who special-
izes in eating disorders, wrote in
an email. Ask: Does this belief
help me be the type of person I
want to be? (Dr. Freedman added
that you may have to break this
down further: What type of per-
son do I want to be? How do I
want to treat myself and other
people?)
Christy Harrison, a nutrition
therapist who examined the issue
of excess weight and the virus in a
Wired article published in April,
said in an interview last month
that few of the early research
studies on the matter controlled
for race, socioeconomic status or
quality of care — “social determi-
nants of health that we know
explain the lion’s share of health
disparities between groups of
people,” she wrote. Nor did they
control for how doctors’ biases
influence the way they care for
higher-weight patients. But strong
evidence exists that obesity (de-
fined as having a body mass index
of 30 or higher) puts you at great-
er risk of dying from Covid-19.
“At the end of the day, regard-
less of what the science does or
doesn’t say about Covid and
weight, we still don’t have any
way for people to lose weight and
keep it off,” Ms. Harrison said.
She suggested asking yourself:
What am I getting out of worrying
about food and my body right now,
and what am I losing? What could
I be doing with that time and
energy? One survey suggested
women fretted for 21 minutes a
day and men for 18 minutes a day.(And to some people, that number
may sound awfully low.) Still,
that’s a lot of time that could be
devoted to anything from guilty
pleasures to relationships — or to
life- and world-changing causes.
“Fearing weight gain and feel-
ing bad about your body takes you
away from what really matters
and being able to participate in
this cultural moment,” Ms. Harri-
son said.EAT IF YOU WANT TO
One tenet of diet culture — or
wellness culture, which is really
just the rebranding of diet culture
— is that eating for any other
reason besides screaming biologi-
cal hunger is a bad thing. This
belief came from the rise of diet
clubs in the 1960s, where women
went to talk out their feelings so
they could avoid so-called emo-
tional eating.
“You have to be starving to
deserve to eat in this culture,” Ms.
Harrison said. “But we are de-
signed to get pleasure out of food
and connect over food.”
Let’s say food really is giving
you comfort. “Go with it, love it, be
grateful for it,” Ms. Resch said.
With one caveat: You’ll need to
stay present to get the actual
comfort and satisfaction. If you’re
too busy judging yourself when
you eat, you’re not savoring the
texture and flavor.ASK WHY YOU EXERCISE
So you’re not working out enough,
or as hard as you did pre-lock-
down, and you think this is a
problem. This may be because, for
you, exercise is about controlling
your body or compensating for
what you’ve been eating — yet
another belief to be discarded.
“Exercise is its own pleasurable
thing you can do for joy and for
mental health benefits,” Ms. Har-
rison said. “It’s hard to tune into
that when you have all these
voices in your head saying, ‘But if
I can’t get my heart rate to this
I’m not going to get the benefits.’ ”
Ms. Resch prefers the word
“movement” to “exercise.”
“Exercise connotes something
you have to do,” she said. “You
want to take out the sense of doing
it for a purpose like weight loss or
keeping muscle on.” Instead, ask
yourself what makes you feel good
in your body. It could just be
standing up and stretching.
Channel your energy into some-
thing more productive than ob-
sessing about weight and exercise
— like working to change diet
culture, such as calling out thin-
promoting or fat-shaming com-
ments on your social networks.
Suman Ambwani, an associate
professor of psychology at Dickin-
son College, said people are some-
times reluctant to challenge these
sorts of statements. “But we found
in one study a couple of years ago
that someone who called attention
to this issue and rejected appear-
ance-related self-worth and the
thin ideal was actually seen as
more likable than someone who
just colluded with body-shaming,”
she said.
Finally, look at feeling bad as
the canary in the coal mine — the
indicator that something might be
ready to change, said Elizabeth
Hall, an intuitive eating coach in
Farmington, Conn. Although
people often respond by vowing to
buckle down or work harder, she
said, the way to end the guilt and
shame is actually just to notice
those feelings, and to ask yourself
if they are serving you or causing
suffering.
“Feeling bad is actually an
invitation to expand and shift our
consciousness and let go of expec-
tations and old programming,”
she said.So you’ve put on some weight during lockdown. You can obsess
over it, but you can also be kinder to yourself. Here’s how.
BY COURTNEY RUBINDon’t Be Ashamed
Of Extra Pounds
NEW TO APPLE TV+
FRIDAY‘Boys State’
While adults with diverging political views often
separate themselves into bubbles, their kids often go
to school together, discussing the big issues in class
and in the cafeteria. The documentary “Boys State”
suggests that the younger generation may be better
off than their bickering elders, because they actually
talk to one another. The directors Jesse Moss and
Amanda McBaine cover an annual Texas tradition: a
gathering of whip-smart, opinionated teenage boys,
who spend a few days at the State Capitol acting as a
kind of mock legislature, practicing building coali-
tions and drafting their own pretend laws. The film-
makers don’t push any agenda here, aside from
showing that young people are often flexible and
good-hearted enough to hear one another out — and
to remain friends when they’re done arguing.
FRIDAY‘Ted Lasso’
A collaboration between the “Scrubs” creator Bill
Lawrence and the former “Saturday Night Live”
comedian Jason Sudeikis, the fish-out-of-water dram-
edy “Ted Lasso” is about a gung-ho American college
football coach who’s been hired to manage an Eng-
lish Premier League soccer team — even though he
knows nothing about the game. The premise has a bit
in common with the baseball movie “Major League.”
Lasso (Sudeikis) has been brought overseas by a
vengeful owner, who wants to run her club into the
ground. But Lawrence and Sudeikis imbue old under-
dog sports clichés with real soul, turning a broadly
comic character into a complex person, dealing with
some deep regrets with the help of a good heart and a
stubborn will.
NEW TO HBO MAX
NEXT SUNDAY‘Lovecraft Country’
Based on a Matt Ruff novel, “Lovecraft Country”
presents a vision of 1950s America where the horror
novelist H. P. Lovecraft’s extra-dimensional mon-
sters and secret cabals are indistinguishable from
the daily racism experienced by Black citizens.
Jonathan Majors plays Atticus, a pulp-fiction-ob-
sessed war veteran who joins his best friend, Letitia
(Jurnee Smollett-Bell), and his uncle George (Court-
ney B. Vance) on a road trip across the south. Deter-
mined not to cower before the white establishment,
the three soon find themselves targeted by a shad-
owy cult, in a gripping and eerie story that makes the
recent past look as sinister as any haunted house.
NOEL MURRAY
WATCH THESE
Catch Some
Streaming Premieres
A Jason Sudeikis sports
comedy and Lovecraftian
horror in the Jim Crow South.
ELIZABETH MORRIS/HBOJORDAN AWANBEST COLD BREW MAKEROXO Good Grips Cold Brew
Coffee Maker
This coffee brewer brings out more
flavors from beans than others we
tried and has the most thoughtful
features for making and storing your
coffee. Simply fill the upper reservoir
with coffee grounds, and then pour
water into the reservoir’s perforated
lid. Unlike other models, the OXO has
volume markings that let you easily
measure the amount of liquid. On
balance, it produces the most consis-
tently flavorful results of any option
out there with the least amount of
hassle. $50 from Homedepot.comBEST TUMBLERHydro Flask 22 Ounce Tumbler
The Hydro Flask keeps icy drinks cold
for upward of five hours and is great
at keeping hot drinks toasty come
winter, too. It’s easier and more
pleasant to hold than practically any
other tumbler, with a slim shape and
an appealing matte powder coat.
That finish is also preferable to plain
stainless steel, which can get too
warm to grab if left in the sun. Hydro
Flask also separately offers a lid with
an integrated straw, which is secure,
easy to remove and clean, and fitted
with a flexible silicone mouthpiece
that prevents jabbing.$30 from
Backcountry.comBEST BLENDEROster Versa Pro Series Blender
This is the best of a new breed of
more budget-friendly high-powered
blenders. Compared with similarly
priced options, the 1,400-watt model
offers more speed variations and runs
more quietly; it’s also one of the few
that comes with a tamper for bursting
air pockets that might develop in your
frozen margarita. It doesn’t compare
to the beloved Vitamix blenders in
terms of power and longevity (it’s also
less than half the price), but it does
have serious features, a user-friendly
design and a solid, seven-year war-
ranty. $171 from Amazon.comFew things elicit true
satisfaction like a cold
refreshment on a sum-
mer day: an ice pop or
ice cream cone by the
pool, that first sip of ice
water at the beach, or
simply a cold brew coffee
in the morning. Just a few
items can help you make
store-quality drinks and
sweets at home — and a
couple of other products
can help them stay frosty
even as the mercury
climbs.
BEST ICE CREAM MACHINEWhynter ICM-201SB
The ICM-201SB makes smoother ice
cream in a shorter amount of time
than almost any of its competitors. It
doesn’t create the absolute
smoothest texture, but it still
produces great results at a reason-
able price. It’s also a quieter appli-
ance and one of the simpler models
to use, with a wide bowl that’s easy to
scoop from, clean, scrape and add
mix-ins. It can be a struggle to ma-
neuver a rubber spatula in the narrow
receptacles of most other models,
but you can empty the ICM-201SB
with a few deft strokes. $340 from
Amazon.comBEST POPSICLE MOLDZoku Classic Pop Mold
This set is easy to fill and transport to
the freezer. Because it’s made of
plastic rather than silicone, the mold
needs to be run under hot water to
set the pops free. Compared with
more squat ice-pop molds, the longer
shape is slightly more prone to break-
age and a little messier to eat, but
these yield ideal ice pops that are
satisfying to bite into. Also, the molds
are translucent, which is useful if you
tend to make more than one flavor in
a batch, allowing you to identify and
pick which color you want to grab.
$20 from Amazon.comThe New
Essentials:
Keep It Cool
This list is adapted from Wirecutter,
the New York Times company that
reviews and recommends products.