Just yesterday, a friend posted on FB her frustration with radio and magazine personalities and their comments on women's bodies. Specifically, she was commenting on a radio DJ who made a comment about a popular female singer being fat. Last week, the real-life princess bride, Kate Middleton, was admonished by a reporter for her (in his opinion) too thin profile. I wrote back to my friend something I'll post here in bold:
WOMEN NEED TO STOP TRYING TO PLEASE OTHER PEOPLE WITH THEIR APPEARANCE.
Please re-read that, again, whether you are male or female. Men and women should answer questions rhetorically as follows: Am I happy with my lifestyle? Am I able to move my body how I would like it move? or Do I suffer from high blood pressure, high cholesterol or another health issue that I could control through eating well and exercising? Does my body keep me from doing things I want to do or think are fun?
If the answer to the first two questions are "yes" and the second two questions can be answered in the negative, then
YOU ARE FANTASTIC JUST AS YOU ARE!
My goal list states that I want to lose 20 lbs. However, I want it to be clear that this is so that my BMI and thus my long-term health, are better than they are now. I am not looking for a certain number in my jeans, or on the scale, per se. I have bad knees and I LOVE hiking and being outdoors. The less weight that my knees carry, the better they will be as I get older. It's that simple. I am not on any kind of "exercise 'x' number of times" plan or eat only "x" number of calories. Rather, I am taking it day-by-day and doing that reflecting I wrote about previously.
At the end of this month, I will look back over my schedule after I step on the scale and see what happened. How much did I exercise? What kinds of healthy choices did I make when it came to meals or snacks? What poor choices did I make and why? How can I fit more regular exercise into my day/week? How did I feel when I exercised?
On that last question, another friend posted on FB that she feels badly when she thinks about exercise. She'd rather crawl back into bed. She then wrote that when she actually exercises, she feels like a million bucks! I, too, feel that way and so as we near the half-way point of January, I have to ask myself why I'm not making sure I feel like a million bucks every day. What is getting in the way of finding fifteen minutes a day that will make me not only physically healthier and closer to my goal, but will also make me feel physically and mentally fantastic?
What keeps you from doing the same? I'm not yelling at you here to exercise, per se. I'm asking that if there is something that makes you feel good, that you can do for a short time and it still works wonders, what is keeping you from it, even for a few minutes every day? Your ideal might be writing each day or reading or moving closer to owning your own business, or learning to play an instrument. What might you do to find a few minutes a day to pursue what makes you glow?
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