Hurry up and weight.

Last night Scott and I were at the gym when I heard something really sad. These two teenage boys were working out - doing a little while on each of the contraptions in the gym. They were very fit and athletic looking, so I didn't think anything about it until one of them said he had to go. I was stretching right by the door, which is right by the bikes (where one of them was), so I was in prime position to hear the exchange.

Boy 1: It's 7, man. I'm out.
Boy 2: Not me. I've gotta stay awhile.
Boy 1: All right. See you later. (walks out the door, then comes back in) Dude......you'd better get that weight off by tomorrow.
Boy 2: Yeah. I know. I will.

This just made me so sad. These two athletic young guys are so concerned about weight....why? So that they can wrestle in a particular weight class. They each had wrestling team sweatshirts on.

I have a soapbox devoted primarily devoted to this subject. When I was on the rowing team in college, I rowed on a lightweight crew. To be on this crew, we had to be under 130 pounds before we were allowed to race. We had to go through the ordeal of stripping down to our spandex and jerseys on freezing fall mornings so that it could be determined that we were under the required weight. This was a little objectifying, but I never minded it that much, personally. I'm blessed (and I do mean blessed) to be petite. I have a small frame that has never carried much weight. It was never an issue of whether or not I would "make weight." It just never was, and I was thankful for that.

I was thankful because of what I saw some of the other girls going through in order to be able to race. They always had a certain degree of consciousness about what they were eating and how many calories that might contain. This would get particularly bad the week of a regatta (virtually every week during the fall). The timing of this heightened awareness was unfortunate. Not only would we be working extra hard in the gym and during our practices to prepare for the upcoming race (burning extra calories and requiring more fuel to keep going), but these girls - each beautiful and in no position to be so concerned with such things - would be extra concerned with what they ate. They dreaded that moment early on Saturday morning (or, in some cases, late on Friday night) when they would have to strip down and face the music.

I place no blame on these girls. They were doing what they had to do in order to do what they loved to do. Crew is addictive. They just wanted to race, but the sport said that they had to be under a certain weight to do so. If, by some chance, all of their preparations did not help them "make weight," they would run. Then use the bathroom. Then run some more. Then they would return to the race headquarters to be weighed again.....and on and on until they made weight. It wasn't just my teammates, either; they were never alone on those frantic post-weighin runs.

I hate this. How many young people - at the most self-conscious time in their lives - are told (on top of everything else they're feeling and the other pressures they're feeling) that now they have to lose weight? Those words stick with them forever. Trust me. I've seen it.

"Get that weight off by tomorrow."

There are few things you can say to someone that would be as destructive as that.