You Go, Girl!

Shape up, slim down, shatter the stereotype

By Cathy Belben -- School Library Journal, 7/1/2004

A lot of folks snickered last fall when the Archie McPhee Company released its latest novelty item: a 5 ½-inch plastic replica of highly respected Seattle public librarian Nancy Pearl. The "Librarian Action Figure" joins a growing family that includes Shakespeare, Moses, Sigmund Freud, and Jesus Christ. Pearl's doppelgänger has short, neatly groomed gray hair, glasses, sensible shoes, and a practical blue suit. Pushing a button on her back elicits an "amazing… shushing action!"

As a profession, librarians are stereotyped as frequently as engineers and accountants—if not more so. We are bifocal-wearing bunheads, collectors of cardigan sweaters, middle-aged women in polyester suits, Naturalizer shoes, and baggy stockings. Besides being fashion disasters, librarians are generally thought of as being exceptionally unsexy, what with our obsessive orderliness and fanatical fact gathering. We're smart, nerdy, no nonsensey, and, of course, bookish. There are librarians out there crankily insisting that these stereotypes are degrading and detrimental to our profession. I, personally, am grateful for these misconceptions. Because without them, I wouldn't have nearly as much fun.

I work six hours a day as a high school librarian. Regardless of whether I'm patrolling the stacks to break up illicit make-out sessions, recommending books to reluctant readers, or instructing ninth graders in the finer points of the Dewey decimal system, I know that everything I do has the potential to influence students. Most people, if they remember their school librarian at all, recall an older woman with fleshy arms, stodgy glasses, and a perpetual grimace—someone decidedly uncool. I want my students to remember me differently. I want to get their attention. Because I know that once I have their attention, I can educate them.

Many of the teens I see each day are victims of a fast-paced, media-driven culture that is constantly pushing products at them. They're overweight and lethargic, passively entertaining themselves with TV and video games, instead of pursuing physical activities. After years of cleaning up Doritos wrappers and empty Coke bottles and viewing more than my fair share of pudgy teenage bellies squishing out from beneath their crop tops, I decided this year that my students needed me to be a better all-around role model. Most people don't think of librarians as likely examples of health and fitness, but we have a perfect opportunity to inspire students. Many of us work with hundreds of kids daily and create programs that affect the entire student body. I know I can have at least a small effect on kids' notions of what it means to be a fit, energetic adult.

But before I could model fitness, I had to attain it. Although I'd always been a runner, I was sidelined two years ago with Achilles' tendon injuries. The less I ran, the less I felt like doing any sort of exercise; I was a prime candidate for a fitness tune-up. At 5' 5", my weight had crept up to 143 pounds, and I'd lost tone and added a layer of softness I call "chudge." Technically, I wasn't overweight or even over fat. I was safely below the national average of 24 percent body fat for women my age. But I felt sluggish, looked dumpy, and lacked the oomph I needed to break up fights and chase recalcitrant kids out of the stacks. I wanted to look a little less slouchy and feel more vital.

I found the answer, unsurprisingly, in books. First, I read a couple of titles that changed my ideas about food and nutrition: Greg Schlosser's Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal and Eric Critser's Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World. I also read a few books about athleticism, including The Frailty Myth: Redefining the Physical Potential of Women and Girls by Colette Dowling and People Who Sweat: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Pursuits by Robin Chotzinoff. Two titles that became my Bibles were George Sheehan's Running and Being: The Total Experience and Bill Phillips's Body for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength.

Sheehan's book is the one I'd like to foist upon every beginning runner or aspiring athlete: it's passionate, smart, and accessible. He raises sport above the realm of the physical into the cerebral, insisting that a human being can't be fulfilled without joyfully embracing some sort of physical endeavor. "The fully functioning person must have a fully functioning body," Sheehan writes. "The self-actualized person must reside in a self-actualized body… you cannot reach excellence or integrity or personal perfection without the body." After reading Running and Being, it's impossible not to long to be the kind of brainy, exultant being that Sheehan urges his readers to be.

Sheehan offered me philosophical inspiration—he made me want to resume exercising so I could see myself as an athlete. Phillips offered a practical way to go about it. The 12–week nutrition-and-fitness program he outlines in Body for Life is perfect for left-brainers like me who organize their clothes by color and alphabetize their CDs. Make a plan for each day and follow it, Phillips says. Eat the right foods, at the right times, in the right amounts, and combine that with consistent, high-intensity cardiovascular and weight training: behold, in about three months, your body will be transformed. Turns out, when you eat less fat, more vegetables, complex grains, and drink a lot of water, and then work out like a demon, your butt gets smaller, your arms stop flapping in the wind, and your belly gets taut.

People don't think of six-pack abs and bikinis when they hear the word librarian. On a good day, they picture someone like Nancy Pearl—someone who's bright and well proportioned. But a librarian in a sports bra bench-pressing her body weight is a rare occurrence—one likely to provoke laughter. And I'm OK with that. I ran into a student at a triathlon not long ago, and the stunned double take she gave me as she watched me shed my wet suit and change into my biking gear was satisfaction enough.

After following Body for Life for nearly a year, I have five percent less body fat and look less like a librarian than ever. Eleven months' worth of weightlifting, running, biking, and swimming have paid off: I'm 15 pounds lighter, more energetic, and strong enough to tote a 50–pound stack of Encyclopedia Britannicas across the library, while chasing some delinquent chugging a Mountain Dew. My students may not be familiar with Archie McPhee's figurines, but they see a Librarian Action Figure every day.

Most of my students will never ever see me in a swimsuit. But they will see me searching for information, recommending great books, and breaking up the occasional fight. Hopefully, they also see me performing what many see as a nerdy, boring job with verve, bouncing through school happy and healthy with an apple in my hand or a bottle of water, and sharing messages about the benefits of good nutrition and regular exercise. I'm not just the lady who can help them find Dave Pelzer's A Child Called It or help them Google their way to an A in global studies.

I'm the librarian who rides her bike 20 miles to school and throws a breakfast party for kids who do the same. I'm the librarian who posts a calendar of local races and fitness events, the one who collects the best books out there about all sorts of sports. I'm the librarian who knows what to ask a bench-pressing record-setter or a student training for her first triathlon. And yep, that's me at the local road race, and on the court in the annual staff-versus-students basketball game. And that's a photo of my bicep on our school's "Books About Sports" Web page. Other people see me, too—my friends, coworkers, and acquaintances at the gym—and they know what I do for a living. I aim to model for them what I hope to be showing my students: that a Librarian Action Figure can be someone efficient and smart—and that she can also be someone who uses books not only to build a better brain, but to build a better body.

Active.com www.active.com
Active.com provides information for thousands of sporting events and allows users to register for events online. The site also includes training tips, research, and the latest fitness news.

Bestabs.com www.bestabs.com
Interested in firming up your abdominal muscles? Here are the basics of Shawn Phillips's "ABSolution" nutrition-and-fitness program.

Body for Life www.bodyforlife.com
Here's a friendly introduction to Bill Phillips's Body for Life program, including tips for exercise and nutrition and helpful recipes.

Just Move.org www.justmove.org
This site, created by the American Heart Association, offers a fitness diary; numerous fact sheets about exercise, health, and nutrition; ideas for incorporating exercise into your daily life; and much more.

Outside Magazine outside.away.com/index.html
This popular magazine's site features valuable links to information about gear, travel, and body work, as well as archives of past articles.

Workout.com www.workout.com
Workout.com provides handy meal and workout planners, and helpful articles on training, weight loss, and other fitness and nutrition topics.