Body Image

I have so many thoughts about body image, it's hard to know where to start a blogpost on it. In fact, it's a subject I have long avoided because it's SO sensitive and SO controversial. But for heaven's sake, the only reason it is, is because we make it so. Us girls. To each other and to ourselves.

I want to relay a conversation I had with my daughter on this subject. She was only 9 at the time. It was a horrific moment for me, yet I can only hope that I handled it correctly. In this conversation, Katie is still a scrawny 9 year old, and VERY active-- biking, running, hiking, dancing. So I can either point out her physical beauty, or take a HUGE risk and see if I can stop the chatter about physical beauty and sizes..... I encourage *you* to listen closely....


Kate, slapping her thighs: I have fat thighs. Look at all that blubber. Look at how they jiggle.
Me: that's because your thigh muscles are soft and relaxed, they aren't jiggling, they are absorbing the impact of you slapping them, of course they are going to move.
Kate: I hate my legs. They are ugly with all of their scars and my fat thighs....

Me: sigh.... look, do you want to be the girl who has perfect, plastic, shiny, legs, or do you want to be the girl who has adventures and stories to tell? Every scar tells a story, do you want to be the girl who says "Oh, I got this scar when I skinned my knee when I was out bike riding, I got this scar when I was out hiking in the Badlands, I got this scar from sliding into homeplate" or do you want to just have perfect legs from staying inside and never doing anything? Do you want skinny little legs or do you want powerful, strong, legs that can finish a 5K and can go out for sunset hiking and ride bike for 5 miles? Do you want to be the girl who looks perfect or do you want to be the girl who has adventures?

Kate: Oh, I want to be the girl who has adventures.

My beautiful little legacy

.... so now I ask you: what do you really want? When it comes to your fitness goals, what's your real goal? To look perfect or to cross the finish line?

My mom's legacy-- 3 generations of active women right there! :) 

To fit the hollywood standard or to set a standard for health and strength for the girls looking up to you? To have a gap in your thighs or to have thighs that carry you to the half-marathon mark? To wear a size two or to wear finisher medals and finisher t-shirts?

Listen to what your inner 9 year old would tell you. Or better yet, listen to your daughters and sons.

Choose to be the girl who has adventures.