Be HEALTHY.
No matter how you look.
Really. How important is how you look?
Well, you might think I’m about to say it’s EVERYTHING. But despite my passion for fitness and my love of great style, I want to delve a little deeper. Your appearance, your clothing, your fashion sense – even the attitude you putting out in the world – how you look really proves nothing about your health.
So, here’s this picture of me. It’s a gorgeous photo. I’m showing off a really great, flexible and strong pose at a gorgeous beach on #CapeCod - a place that invokes all kinds of wonderful feelings for me.
But here's the thing. The first time I saw this photo, I didn't think about any of those things. I thought, "Ew. My belly is sticking out. Why didn’t I suck it in? I probably should have not eaten for a day or two before this shoot. I wonder if I can photoshop that?"
Yeah...Self hate. Super negative self-thoughts and no love.
Would I let anyone tell me I look fat in this photo? HELL to-the NO! So why am I allowing my inner voice to beat the crap out of me?
There are so many answers to that question... and I do not have the psychology degree to unpack it all. So let’s go with the easy answer. 'Cuz...society. We’ve had the image of skinny = healthy shoved down our throat for SO long, we don’t even know how to reprogram it. We see anything that is not size 0 or 2 as HUGE. Fat. Lazy. Disgusting. Ugly. Un-fit. Weak. All the negative, gross words that we would never want to hear anyone say to or about someone we love, yet we’re so accepting of those words scrolling through our own subconscious (or sometimes even conscious) thoughts.
So, does skinny = healthy? Short answer is NO! Now I am by no means saying go out there and gain ALL the weight. I’m saying, it’s not right that I should see my size medium or small or 6 or 8 or 10 (depends on the day!) self and think those ICKY thoughts! I’m saying I should be able to see that photo of me, (or someone who looks like me), in a super low lunge and think, “YAS, girl! You strong! Look at that knee bend! Check out those strong arms and great posture! And hey - you look so happy!". Body positive words like #Strong. #Fit. #Flexible. #Happy.
“YAS, girl! You strong!"
I want to rewrite the narrative. I want to see more real, strong women and men. I want to see my ideal self represented. I want to see actual healthy people put themselves out there. I am 5 feet and almost 5 inches tall and I weigh anywhere between 135-155 pounds depending on the time of year, the amount of stress I’m under and whether I’ve weighed myself lately or not. I just had my annual physical and I am ridiculously healthy, according to my doctors. I take ZERO medication, aside from the occasional Advil. I am literally the picture of health, regardless of my size.
So share more posts of you loving you. More posts showing what you can DO – not just how you look. Show me how much further you walked or ran today. Show the world how many more reps you did. Post to your #insta the new workout you tried that pushed you out of your comfort zone. Share your healthy wins and your positive, encouraging words and try not to allow the negative self hate to permeate.
You are #healthy. You are #fit. You are #strong. You are #beautiful.