Vanessa Harris

The other day, I was having a normal conversation with someone I had recently met. We were talking about family. Nothing heavy. Just the usual getting-to-know-you kind of questions. At one point, I mentioned that my parents are dead... There was a pause. Not a big one. But enough that I could feel it. The tone shifted a bit. The conversation kept going, but it didn’t feel the same. Later, they asked about my grandparents. I answered honestly again. One set of my grandparents are also dead....

Lately, I’ve been noticing a shift in the way women are talking about fitness. Not just in the gym, but in conversations, on social media, and with clients who are genuinely trying to do the right thing. There’s a softer tone to it now. More focus on alignment, hormones, and listening to your body. And woven into all of that, I keep hearing the same phrase: “I just want a Pilates body.” Sometimes it’s said alongside conversations about training with your cycle, about lowering cortisol, about...

Let me start with something important, because nuance matters here. Sometimes, weight loss is necessary. It can be a meaningful part of improving health, reducing disease risk, easing joint pain, and increasing quality of life. North America has been navigating an obesity epidemic for decades, and pretending that weight is never relevant would be just as unhelpful as obsessing over it. This is not an article about ignoring weight entirely. It is an article about what happens when weight...