Gastro-terrorist invades disability exercise class, compares self to admirable people Okay, before I rant, I must establish my background: several years ago, i was in a very serious accident and sustained a traumatic brain injury as a result. The injury caused me to lose fine motor coordination, some balance, among other things. I consider it a combination of wonderful medicine/good fortune that I am still here. When I initially began therapy, I could not use a knife and fork and felt humiliated to have to eat predominantly with my hands Balance was difficult. Over the years, with tons of support and love from many sources and wonderful therapists, I  have regained some function (also thanks to people who turned me onto brain healthy eating!) I know the damage is still there, but because I was fairly young when the damage occurred, neural plasticity was possible and I know that is a big reason why I have progressed from where I was years ago. I am still not where I was before, but I am not where I was back when the injury first happened, and I have a lot of gratitude for that. So with that said, on with the rant... I attend an aerobics/yoga hybrid class that is held expressly for people with "limitations." They don't define this explicitly, but it's understood that it's small movements for people who are generally in recovery or dealing with permanent disabilities. Each of us has stated goals we want to reach each class or within a certain number of classes - when somebody reaches a goal, the class forms a ring around them and applauds (yes, it's corny, but it's encouraging). My goal has been to achieve a beginner tree pose (not with the arch of the foot on the thigh, but the beginner modification on the shin or calf) for 5 seconds. That's it, basically - balance for 5 seconds. The last class, a blonde chunker walks in and positions herself near me. Now, I've learned that not all disabilities are visible, so I generally try to not judge on sight, but I got the feeling she was one of those "easy workouts for fats" ones. The instructor (who also a minister and terminally nice) asked her to introduce herself and say why she was there, including goals. And she says she is "trying to ease back into exercise after not doing it for years and  has knee problems (I bet you do)." You know, the MO of the Fat. Oh, and that for her goal "she wants to just break a sweat." (Haven't the disabled suffered enough?) So...okay. We're going through the paces and the instructor sees me with my foot in the air and counts off 5 with me and starts clapping and says "Everybody, Jagz hit her goal" and they do the come over and applaud thing. And the fat proceeds to come over and try to rap with me and says "It took me foooor-eeeevvvah to do that too hehe!" And I could kind of felt a vein pop because I hate, HATE that - you struggle with balance because you have mutilated yourself to an extent to where your center of gravity is off - I struggle with balance because a car slammed into me and smashed my brain against my skull. You can drop the weight (I know, you won't, but I'm speaking theoretically). I am 30 - if I live another 70 years to 100, I will always have this brain. Now, do not get me wrong, I value every day and am not depressed about this, but it's just the truth. You equate yourself to the people in this room, who are victims of circumstance as opposed to their own vices, who deal with life with joy and positive outlooks while you slowly kill yourself with dessert. HOW DARE you equate yourself to people like us. I just looked her like she had two heads.  So basically...screw the fats who try, in any way shape or form to compare themselves to genuine disabled or limited people. We should not have to endure the insult of seeing them in the spaces that are created to help us. It's insulting.