Who are you

I wrote on a sticky note about a year ago

"Who are you going to be? Make a decision, and make it happen."

It is still taped to the mirror in my bedroom and on some occasions it has annoyed me, and on others it has pushed me to get to the gym, dig a little deeper, or to put the graham cracker with peanut butter down.

My California friend doing the weight loss competition brought up the topic of feeling overwhelmed a little bit by always trying to do the "right" thing. Confessing she hadn't had a poptart, toaster strudel, or other processed junk food in so long, but admidetly missed it. A few years back she ate that stuff all the time and is skinnier than she is now.

Well, there is medical terminology and explanations up the bum for why as we age it gets harder to lose weight. I don't know them, I don't even care that much either to tell you the truth.

She said that she is so sick of feeling guilty after eating a cookie, that she admires these bodies of fitness models and figure competitiors but has realized that isn't really what her goal is.

I read that post. I re read it. And I thought, "this girl has got it goin on!" She may not FEEL comfortable in her own skin that she says is 10 lbs over weight, but I have a very good feeling she is almost there because of this statement.

She has realized that it isn't her goal to look like so she is at 10% body fat. Honestly, most fitness models you see are at or below that, and they are also airbrushed to look freaking amazing. Most of them also eat a strict diet every single day of their lives over and over again. They do not eat cookies, they do not drink soda, they do not have cheat meals often. I read once on a girls blog who was both beautiful and amazingly fit that she has a cheat meal 3 times a YEAR. Her birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Pauline Nordin said the last time she ate pizza was in 2008 and and before that was 2004.

I mean, that is nuts to me. I don't want to be that girl. Would I like to look like her? Ya, who wouldn't? But at what cost? These women have their entire careers, their homes, their food, their livlihood is based on them keeping their picture perfect body as picture perfect as it can get all the time.

I am not saying, eat processed foods, sit on the couch. I am saying CHOOSE WHO YOU WANT TO BE, and then be ok with the decision that you made. Our wants and desires evolve every day of our lives and what we want today is probably not what we will want in 6 months or a year. But for now, make a plan to be as healthy of a YOU, you can be.

I think it is good to get advice and/or sorround yourself with people that are as healthy as you or healthier. I think it is good to network with people and learn and gain from them what you can, but at the end of the day-- you get in your bed, you sleep with your spouse, and you wake up again the next day-- in your own shoes.

We all need to stop striving to be a "Jamie Eason" or a "Pauline Nordin" or a "Jaime Baird" or whoever it is you think is rockin. I have seen people on facebook want these women to SPELL out exactly what they do, eat, lift (Weight and repetition wise), how they run etc. They want to BE them. This will not happen. We can not become someone we are not.

For the 95% of us who are just working out and eating healthy-- we will never make a dollar off of it. We are just doing it to do it, to feel the sweat and to feel the burn. To feel the satisfaction of knowing that we have molded and sculpted our "temple" into the most beautiful, strong building WE can, with what resources WE have, and in addition to the millions of other things (that are equally and in some regards more important) we do all day every day.....(kids, spouses, jobs, pets, family, volunteering, church, blogging, neighboring, cleaning, etc.).

So to you, Melissa, and to you-- dear reader really look at your life. Look at the person you have become and think about the person you want to become. Be grateful, don't sell your self short, and don't underestimate your greatness. Be the person you were designed to become and enjoy the process of getting there..

and for the love of all things eat a damn cookie every now and again, and enjoy it.