Loving Yourself More Fully

What if you were satisfied with your body?

What if healthy choices and self care were easy and joyful?

How might your life be different?

What would become possible?

In my state we have a commercial that airs, it’s for a cosmetic surgery office. The commercial has different women in a “candid” setting, talking about what they would change about their bodies and why. As if getting women to expand on their insecurities isn’t enough, let’s get them to go even deeper into something that is really just superficial.

I like to think I’m a pretty kind and compassionate person, but nothing makes me more prone to violence than scaling a woman down to her appearance and equating her worth to how she looks, and then preying on, or calling attention to her insecurities. Can we please just stop that already? I’ve come to the conclusion that a woman could do a complete head to toe makeover, “fixing” everything that they don’t like about their appearance, and within a week maybe two of being completely healed from the first procedure, they would find something else that needs to be “fixed”.

You’ve heard the saying, “beauty is only skin deep” but it’s truly an inside job. We must learn to love, accept and embrace ourselves and all the beautiful imperfections that we’re made of. In the eyes of most of society and in my own eyes, at 32A (on a good day) my breasts are “too small”. However, I was able to feed my 2 kids when they were babies. My body did exactly what I needed and wanted it to do. Does this make me better than someone who maybe was unable to breastfeed, or someone who decided that breast augmentation was the right choice for them? Absolutely not! Nor does it make someone who is naturally (or cosmetically) larger than me better than me. We are all different with amazing bodies with different and amazing strengths and abilities.

Fitness comes in all shapes and sizes. I have a client who is now retired from law enforcement. She’s about 5’2” with a beautiful voluptuous figure, and let me tell you she is all about the glam. She makes law enforcement look good. When she was working, she would have to take the physical fitness test once a year (maybe twice? I can’t remember). Together, we would get her ready to not just pass it, but crush it. One year, she came back from the test and told me about 2 younger, taller women who were “skinny” that were in the same group she was for testing. She was surprised at how much better she performed than they did. I will tell you that when I asked her to use this story in my blog she wanted me to tell you that she ran the 1.5 miles in 4” heels, because she thought it made the story sound more impressive, and well, because glam y’all. I will have you know that I’m a responsible coach and she did NOT run in heels. Anyway, I reminded her that 1. She worked hard for her results and she should be proud of her performance, and 2. Fitness comes in all shapes and sizes. If you’re still not convinced, go watch an Ironman triathlon. Better yet, go volunteer at one of the aid stations. Stay til the very end. You will see people of all shapes, sizes and abilities with heart and determination bigger than anything you can imagine.

This is your call to action towards loving yourself more fully. Embracing your beautiful imperfections. Celebrating what your body can do, and accepting that you are ENOUGH. Exercise for progress, and slight improvement daily, not an imperfect ideal that isn’t who you are or the measure of what you can do. 💕