Self love is work.
Appreciating what your body can do is increasingly difficult in a world where filtered photos, miracle wraps, and different diets are blasting us on and offline.
I still remember the first time that I became aware of what my body looked like.
I was in 7th grade, at a new school, sitting in the back of a bus on our way to the gym. As the new kid, I threw myself into sports – soccer was where I made most of my first friends each time that we moved. I sat down on the bench, and my classmate looked at me and said:
“How are your legs SO big. Both of my legs equal one of yours”
I can STILL feel my cheeks getting red.
The next time I had gym class, I chose pants instead of shorts. I kept that up until I was in my mid 20s.
Chances are, each one of us can pinpoint one time in our lives where we became acutely aware of our body. Chances are, we have held THAT one comment so close to us, that we have refused to fully accept what our bodies are capable of.
When I was training for my first marathon, I remembered having a love/hate relationship with my legs. They were strong, but I could light a FIRE with them if I forgot to put on Body Glide. I started wearing shorts again, not because I LIKED how I looked, but because running in pants in 85 F was just terrible. My legs could carry me 26.2 miles, but when I saw my race photos, I would quickly swipe past the ones that showed off the jiggle that happens to ANY leg when gravity and pavement meet.
So what changed?
When I was injured in 2016 and couldn’t do anything – I had the realization that what my body was able to do was actually pretty awesome.
When I first strapped in to a rower, and had Elise tell me that rowing was 60% legs, I thought to myself “Well, I have legs, so let’s do this”.
And I haven’t looked back.
We live in a society that makes a ton of money off of making us feel bad about ourselves. How amazing would it be if we were able to help shift that mindset and become a society that wanted everyone to LOVE themselves?
Jump on the rower and sprint faster, or pick up a heavier set of weight, not because you HATE your body, but because you LOVE showing yourself how strong you are. When you set your PRs and break them months later, you work for it not because you want to be 5 lbs lighter, but because you are striving to be better than you were yesterday.
This summer, pull out that bathing suit that you have been waiting to wear and throw on those shorts that you bought years ago but were waiting for the “perfect time” to wear them. There is no better time than RIGHT NOW to love yourself and what your body is able to do.
Leave those negative thoughts about your body behind, and focus on how awesome YOU are.
Your body, right now, allows you to do amazing things, on and off the rower – whether it’s raising $900 in 45 minutes to support your community, snagging that 17s 100m sprint time, to spending quality summertime fun with your family.
You don’t need anyone’s validation or permission.
Give it to yourself.
Go ahead, LOVE your strong body this summer.
