I love to take care of my body, I try to love my body, but sometimes it feels like a losing battle. We’ve all been there right. Not feeling good in our own skin. I talk to people daily about this and yet I am one of them struggling on occasion. It doesn’t matter who you are, male or female, we all have body issues that need to be dealt with. It is like the unspoken truth for most of us. Many want to weigh less or fit into a certain size without really realizing the situation they are in.
And I’m preaching to the choir. I am pregnant with number three and I can tell you I am not a pleasant pregnant woman. I must say it never gets easier to see the number on the scale rise and your skin stretch. I told my running buddy (who is also pregnant) that we are fighting a losing battle during our pregnancies. No matter how many days we continue to push through, our destiny for the next six months is to grow larger, run slower (if at all) and maybe get to the point of a waddle. How negative is this? But that is the world we live in. The world that tells us we have to be a certain size, or look a certain way. No one ever really talks about what true health is and how I should love my body. We are told to think that it is never good enough.
Part of being healthy is having a healthy mindset about our bodies, loving who we are, love your body for what it is. Isn’t it true the more confident you are and the more beautiful you feel which usually means the better care of your body you take? Even though my destiny is another 20 plus pounds in six months, what I forget is that I am growing a baby. Even if your not in this situation but the scale continues to stay put but you eat real food, you exercise, you try. If you respect your body, who cares if that number on the scale is more than you hoped it would be. Who cares about the blasted scale! It isn’t an indicator of your health. There are what we in the nutrition field call fat skinny people. By society they are skinny but their health is far from it.
Your biggest indicator of good health is how you are respecting your body. What you are feeding it, how you are treating it, how you live. And maybe one of the greatest indicators is your mindset. We can do this, we can choose to be grateful. We must if we want to succeed at this thing called health. We must choose to respect our bodies and if we do this our bodies will take care of us.
I challenge you to just say thank you to the next compliment someone gives you instead of always having a but, even when it is just a thought. Be grateful for the healthy changes you are making and for the body you have been blessed to have. Health is not a sprint, it is a marathon that takes perseverance, motivation and drive. Choose to be grateful, choose to respect you.
Lets make the change society needs, a number on the scale does not determine beauty!
