Hot Bodies
Remember when I wrote hot bodies and sweaty saunas - and I actually meant hot as in temperature? Yeah.
Confession: I'm not always ok with my body. I often wonder about why it has to be that way. I will exercise, fantasize and eat accordingly thinking that there will be something that I can do to change it, however, this will never solve that problem. My body is how my body is.
In my moments when I accept this and start eating and exercising to feel right, and stop fantasizing about any type of cosmetic augmentation, I can not tell you how much happier, and healthier I feel. Don't mistake what I am saying as a consistent awesome feeling, but DO know that this perspective has made many days more positive when reflecting on my body, and has increased my resolve to eat right and exercise for the benefits of general well being instead of pure physicality.
I watched "It's a mad mad mad mad world" with a friend over three years ago and I've always remembered this quote from the movie just because it struck so strongly a chord:
"And this positively infantile preoccupation with bosoms. In all my time in this wretched Godforsaken country, the one thing that has appalled me most of all is this prepostrous preoccupation with bosoms. Don't you realize they have become the dominant theme in American culture: in literature, advertising and all fields of entertainment and everything. I'll wager you anything you like that if American women stopped wearing brassieres, your whole national economy would collapse overnight. "
Americans over-sexualize the female body. I've gotten used to this. I'm learning that there are things that I can do to counter trends that I find damaging. Being content with my body even when it's not perfect, is worthwhile. Distinguishing and putting effort into the parts that I can change (ie: muscle definition and tone, running speed, strength, endurance) from the parts I can not (ie: cup size, thigh size, bone size, height, shape) is empowering and enjoyable as opposed to a chore that I am supposed to do for an outcome that seems unattainable.
So in my prep for a 10k, I've been starting out somewhere with running 8 miles a week. Obviously I'll have to be running way more as I get closer to race date, but I'm working on getting my speed and endurance back up. I took leave of exercise for almost two months and I'm dearly paying for it.
What's funny to me, is how cyclical life is. I remember being trained to work with teens at a girl scout camp and we had a whole afternoon dedicated to body image and being positive about it and learning how to answer those hard questions from the girls we were mentoring. I came back from that experience and in rash counter-culture behavior threw out half my pre-camp wardrobe that I then deemed too tight or immodest. Contrast this with the other day, where I actually accepted and believed a compliment about how I looked in a swimsuit - this was a first for me. I think I've been working through the sentiment of how to appreciate my body and yet not be taken in by vanity for years (since 2002) and I almost have the two connected into my own theory about positive body image. Almost at equilibrium. Almost.
Confession: I'm not always ok with my body. I often wonder about why it has to be that way. I will exercise, fantasize and eat accordingly thinking that there will be something that I can do to change it, however, this will never solve that problem. My body is how my body is.
In my moments when I accept this and start eating and exercising to feel right, and stop fantasizing about any type of cosmetic augmentation, I can not tell you how much happier, and healthier I feel. Don't mistake what I am saying as a consistent awesome feeling, but DO know that this perspective has made many days more positive when reflecting on my body, and has increased my resolve to eat right and exercise for the benefits of general well being instead of pure physicality.
I watched "It's a mad mad mad mad world" with a friend over three years ago and I've always remembered this quote from the movie just because it struck so strongly a chord:
"And this positively infantile preoccupation with bosoms. In all my time in this wretched Godforsaken country, the one thing that has appalled me most of all is this prepostrous preoccupation with bosoms. Don't you realize they have become the dominant theme in American culture: in literature, advertising and all fields of entertainment and everything. I'll wager you anything you like that if American women stopped wearing brassieres, your whole national economy would collapse overnight. "
Americans over-sexualize the female body. I've gotten used to this. I'm learning that there are things that I can do to counter trends that I find damaging. Being content with my body even when it's not perfect, is worthwhile. Distinguishing and putting effort into the parts that I can change (ie: muscle definition and tone, running speed, strength, endurance) from the parts I can not (ie: cup size, thigh size, bone size, height, shape) is empowering and enjoyable as opposed to a chore that I am supposed to do for an outcome that seems unattainable.
So in my prep for a 10k, I've been starting out somewhere with running 8 miles a week. Obviously I'll have to be running way more as I get closer to race date, but I'm working on getting my speed and endurance back up. I took leave of exercise for almost two months and I'm dearly paying for it.
What's funny to me, is how cyclical life is. I remember being trained to work with teens at a girl scout camp and we had a whole afternoon dedicated to body image and being positive about it and learning how to answer those hard questions from the girls we were mentoring. I came back from that experience and in rash counter-culture behavior threw out half my pre-camp wardrobe that I then deemed too tight or immodest. Contrast this with the other day, where I actually accepted and believed a compliment about how I looked in a swimsuit - this was a first for me. I think I've been working through the sentiment of how to appreciate my body and yet not be taken in by vanity for years (since 2002) and I almost have the two connected into my own theory about positive body image. Almost at equilibrium. Almost.
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