I finally decided to shred an influencer’s repeated mantra that “the purpose of your body is relationship, not perfection or thinness.”
Amanda Martinez Beck visibly weighs around 300 pounds, and based on images, I’d estimate her height to be around 5’3.
She has almost 23,000 followers on Instagram.
Even though that pales in comparison to body image influencers who have a million, it’s still a lot of women she’s been feeding medical miss-information and illogical reasoning to.
Amanda Martinez Beck has subjectively defined what the purpose of one’s body is as a coping mechanism for her morbid obesity and the problems that it has caused (though she denies that her obesity had anything to do with her 40-day hospitalization from COVID-19, her type 2 diabetes, her obstructive sleep apnea and her chronic foot pain from plantar fasciitis).
What is the purpose of our body?
Shutterstock/sdecoret
This is one of those questions that doesn’t have a scientifically proven answer.
Rather, it’s a question perhaps best suited for a person with a doctorate in philosophy.
But using logic and common sense, we should definitely be able to dismantle the claim that the purpose of your body is relationship.
At first, this mantra may sound quite reasonable and can pass as a sturdy answer to the big question.
But once you start digging just a little bit, you’ll realize that if the purpose of the human body is relationship – that this is ALL THE MORE REASON to take excellent care of it by strength training and doing aerobic exercise, eating as healthfully as possible and maintaining a body weight that pleases your doctor.
Amanda, who describes herself as a “fat liberationist” and “fat activist,” says that the “relationship” is with oneself, one’s neighbors and the Divine.
There are several problems with her reasoning.
Relationship with Oneself
Seems to me that the component of our existence, that has the most relationship with ourselves, is our mind. Not the body.
However, the best way to have a positive relationship with yourself, via your mind, is to build a strong, resilient, healthy body through resistance and cardio exercise, and also by limiting intake of ultra-processed foods.
Really, what better way to have a great relationship with oneself? Not smoking and limiting alcohol will also greatly help.
Relationship with Neighbors
Amanda, who denounces athletic participation in her four kids, of which three are significantly overweight, has never actually explained on Instagram what she means by “neighbors.”
I doubt this is meant to be taken literally, as in, the people who live near your home or in your apartment complex.
It’s an odd terminology that she consistently uses, rather than “family members and friends,” or “all people.”
However, if we move past the semantics, this element of the mantra is the very reason that every body absolutely should be on a committed workout and healthful eating regimen.
Because if the purpose of our body is relationship, then wouldn’t you want to be around for as long as possible to have relationships?
Wouldn’t you want your body to be as fit and as able as possible, to make those relationships more interactive and not burden one’s spouse with a body that’s chronically compromised from lifestyle choices such as overconsumption of junk food and avoidance of exercise?
Amanda Martinez Beck can’t do much with her “neighbors” or the people in her life with such a large body of limited stamina and mobility.
She can’t participate in all the iconic adventures and activities that people do with their loved-ones and good friends, such as hiking, horseback riding, running around in the park with her young kids and dog, long walks of sightseeing, long periods on her feet such as at an amusement park and anything else that requires minimal stamina and the absence of aching joints for which obesity can either cause, or make a lot worse if there’s a chief underlying cause.
Amanda Martinez Beck’s morbid obesity would prevent her from being able to carry out a task such as shown here. Freepik.com/prostooleh
As for living as long as possible, this obesity promoter, who has made multiple posts holding handmade signs that say, “It’s okay to be fat,” might counter me by pointing out that a fit and healthy 130 pound woman can die in a car accident on the way to the climbing gym.
Her supporters would also agree on this. But there’s a big problem they fail to realize with this feeble logic.
A morbidly obese individual, as well, can get in a fatal car accident!
If someone’s drunk or falling asleep at the wheel, or for whatever reason their driving is unsafe, their vehicle isn’t going to careen towards only slender physically active drivers.
ANY body type of whosever in the path of that errant vehicle is going to get impacted.
Thus, the hypothetical fatal motor vehicle accident is a constant in the equation: It gets cancelled out.
It’s the variables we must examine. Obesity, especially severe, is a major, major variable that shortens lifespan.
It’s a variable because it’s caused by lifestyle or modifiable factors. Nobody gets to Amanda’s size without significant overconsumption, especially coupled with avoidance of exercise.
Relationship with the Divine
Amanda Martinez Beck, with this dictum, implies that a physical body is required to have a relationship with God.
This makes absolutely zero sense. If this were true, then people in the afterlife wouldn’t be able to have a relationship with God, because in the afterlife, people are not in physical form.
In fact, nobody alive knows just what form our physical bodies take when we “cross over.” But it’s definitely not a flesh-and-blood body.
Secondly, her pronouncement suggests that people with full-body paralysis, who can’t use their body, are unable to have a relationship with the Divine.
This is just ridiculous. Nobody ever says, “To get closer to God, move your body more.”
Instead, they recommend prayer or talking to God, which does not require a body from the neck down to do; it requires only the brain.
If your body does have a purpose…
Well, if we take an anthropological approach to this, we can state that the purpose of our body is to survive as best as we can.
This was certainly true of ancient peoples who needed to be on their feet all day, who needed to be able to execute deft movement for hunting, escaping from danger and making prolonged migrations.
They needed a lithe, limber and trim body to be able to carry their babies for long treks, to carry fresh kills and buckets of water for long walks – on rough terrain – and all without wearing Nikes.
The purpose of one’s body during primitive times was that of survival.
Imagine a 300 pound person out in the unforgiving elements, be it cold or heat, building shelter, dragging dead prey or constructing a watercraft. Such a body will fail at these purposes.
The purpose of our body isn’t perfection or thinness, true.
But — the purpose of our body is to survive, to process incoming information from the environment, to express communication, to think, to invent, to build things, to repair things, to derive joy from doing all sorts of physical activities — and to be around for as long and as healthfully and as strong as possible for our loved-ones.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness, where she was also a group fitness instructor, she trained clients of all ages for fat loss and maintaining it, muscle and strength building, fitness, and improved cardiovascular and overall health.
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