As I sit here watching one of my fave shows, What Not to Wear, I find an over arching theme throughout the show is being happy with your body and knowing how to work it. Ok now brace yourself- we’re gonna get a little personal here.
Over the past few days, it has come to my attention that I have lost my curves. Before I cut gluten out of my diet, I weighed 150 lbs. Now, after working out 5 days a week, closely monitoring my portions, and always eating healthy, I weigh 25 lbs less. I feel great, healthy, and fit. I have never wanted to be a stick figure and have always been one to appreciate curvey women. But quite honestly, I’m starting to miss my own.
For me, diet and exercise is an ever-changing process. I often find myself modifying and changing my routines and eating habits to tweak my figure here and there. My number one reason for working out and eating healthy is to BE HEALTHY. Duh. But my number two (and maybe even tied with number one?) is the desire to have a great body. For as long as I can remember, I have had my “figure” goals (i.e. I want have a body like so-and-so. I want to have a __ in waist). Obviously, being content with your body and being healthy are so important. However, I will admit that I often succumb to the images portrayed by the media. I constantly have to remind myself that celebrities have personal trainers, personal chefs, are airbrushed, and are wearing Spanx, but those perfect figures still bombard my consciousness. Come on, what girl doesn’t think about that?
My mind holds a hodgepodge of contradictions, placed there by culture, media, peers, etc. Clothes look better on a thinner frame. Having curves is sexier than being a bean pole. Flat stomachs look best in a bathing suit. A little pudginess on the tummy is soft and feminine. It’s like having an angel and a devil on my shoulders.
But what if I let my body take over and tell me what it wants to do? What if I ate and exercised purely for health and enjoyment? How would my body change?
Well, I want to conduct a little experiment. I feel confident enough to let my genetics take over and see how it turns out. Over the past two days, I have sort of embraced this natural body beauty idea, and I am fairly certain my caloric intake has made a significant jump. I am going to just go with it. It’s time to practice what I preach, right?
This is a great post. Finding balance is so hard. Sometimes I wonder will I ever be truly happy with my body? It's something I am still trying to figure out. This is a great experience, find out what your body really wants. Can't wait to hear the results of this experiment!
ReplyDeleteThat's something that I have always struggled with- being happy with my body. The truth is, we can always find something we can fix. We have to find a way to look at those imperfections as just another beautiful thing that makes us who we are. I have to tell myself this multiple times a day! I am glad you enjoyed it. I will let you know how it goes!
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