As a man prepared to go on a tour of Anytime Fitness in North Reno with a personal trainer this month, he looked over towards the gym manager and said: ‘Well it doesn’t look like she works out very much’.
The jibe is something Mandi Holden, 35, who used to weigh 420lbs but lost 120lbs, had heard a thousand times before, but this time, it made her angry.
She proceeded to use Facebook to deliver a message against fat shaming, especially in a gym, that has since gone viral.
Mandi Holden, 35, made a video hitting back at a man who fat shamed her inside the gym she managed
She said she was angry after a man told a personal trainer nearby: ‘well it doesn’t look like she works out very much’. Mandi has lost 120lbs since signing up for the gym in 2014
Mandi said usually she would brush the comment off as part of her job – until she realized she was setting a precedent for members to think and speak like that to others.
‘People who don’t understand, people who don’t know my story, people who expect to see a certain thing when they walk into a gym, are going to have opinions and that’s okay – that’s not a reflection of me,’ she said.
‘I know how far I’ve come and the privilege of working here [is] representing fitness for every body, which is important. Sometimes it comes with weird comments from people who don’t understand.
‘But today, it rubbed me wrong, and this is why,.
‘This place was my sanctuary. When I first started here as a member it was 2014 – I was 425 pounds and I was in the darkest place.
‘My life was changed when I came here because I was shown love and I was shown support.’
Since signing up for Anytime Fitness, Mandi told the Reno Gazette Journal she had lost 120 pounds.
Mandi said she knows she is not what people would expect a gym manager to be, but thought it presented her with an opportunity to make sure all people felt welcome
She said it was important for her those comments were never directed at one of the gym’s members, so she chose to take a stand
The passionate gym manager began to tear up as she continued to speak about her weight loss and everything she had gained.
‘It just makes me mad,’ she said.
‘Not because it hurts my feelings… but for everybody else who comes in here, despite what they look like, despite what they can do, you need to know this is a safe place for you.
‘I’m going to stick up for you and every single person who works here is going to stick up for you to make sure this place continues to be a safe place.’
She later told Yahoo Lifestyle ensuring members of the gym felt safe and comfortable was her main ambition in creating the video.
‘Our members here are all kinds of shapes, sizes, and orientations. It’s really important for them to feel safe and that they’re not going to be made fun of,’ she said.
When the man returned from his tour of the gym, he was taken to see Mandi to discuss membership options, which start at $35.99 a month. Rather than leave his earlier comments be, she decided she would confront him.
She confronted the man who shamed her after his tour and said his comments were ‘not acceptable’
‘I know it doesn’t look like I work out very much – nice to meet you – but this is where I started and this is where I am now. Those kind of comments are not acceptable here, so we’ll get that out of the way,’ she told him, before immediately launching into membership options.
The man seemed embarrassed by his actions, Mandi said, and unsurprisingly chose not to join the gym.
Throughout the clip, Mandi emphasized the importance of being kind and supportive towards people trying to improve their health – no matter what they looked like, or how well they were doing it.
She finished off the now viral video with an important message.
‘I just want you to know if you see someone in the gym and they look like they don’t know what they’re doing or they’re just starting out, or they don’t look the part,’ she began.
‘You don’t know their story, you don’t know what they’ve accomplished, you don’t know what they’re dealing with. You don’t know, you don’t know, you don’t know.
‘I beg you, please, show kindness, show empathy.’
She urged people to show kindness and empathy to people who were not overtly comfortable in a gym or were struggling with their workout