Wonderfully Made

I am so sick of my white skin, why can't it be tan?

I hate brown hair! Why wasn't I born blonde?

My hands are so short, I just want longer fingers!

My eyes are too big, I am going to do everything I can to make them smaller.

My feet are so small, why can't they be bigger like hers?

Ugh! These pants are so long on me, if only my legs were longer.


How ridiculous do these statements above sound? Pretty freaking dumb huh?

How about these-
My stomach is so big, I am going to work my butt off until I have a six pack.
My shoulders will not build up, I am going to train harder than ever before so I can have big shoulder caps.
My butt is so big, I am going to work it out all dang day until it shrinks.
I just wish my arms were smaller!
When I lose more of my body fat I will look like all the fitness models in the magazines.
My face is so fat, I am going to avoid all carbohydrates so I lose some weight.
Ugh, my thighs rub together, I will run til they stop

Those ones don't sound so dumb do they? They sound normal, they are probably things you have thought, they are definitely things I have written, said, and thought. Only in my thoughts the wording has been much more harsh.

A friend I truly love, and who meant well, sent this to my via text the other day and I have been pi$$ed ever sense about this stupid picture.




I want to take that freakin rhino off that treadmill and scream with it's face up really close to mine-- "YOU WILL NEVER BE A DANG UNICORN!!! THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FRIGGIN UNICORN  YOU BEAUTIFUL HIPPO. LOOKING LIKE SOMETHING YOU ARE NOT IS NOT A GOOD DREAM TO HAVE!!"

Get over it hippo. You were born to be a hippo, you were born to have a curvaceous body that is capable of many strong things--but you dear hippo, will never look like a unicorn--and that's PERFECTLY OK!
Just be you little hippo--there is only one you, and that's truer than true! Be the best dang hippo you can be. Run fast, eat healthy food, meditate, do good to those around you and look into the mirror and tell yourself you love yourself because you are the best freaking you there ever will be.

It has been on my mind a lot lately how focused we can get on becoming perfect. Everyone wants to know the answer--how long until I lose this weight? How long until I can run that far? How long until I will be ready? There is no time table friends. Fitness and health are life long endeavors that never, ever end. You will never "arrive" at this physique or at this weight or at this body fat and stay there. It is a constant journey that you will never be able to hop off, which is why I wish everyone would take this advice--

Make small changes, a little here and a little there. Exercise a little and add a little after a few weeks. Love yourself for who you are TODAY and for who you can become, but stop trying to become a perfect model in a magazine. Those pictures aren't real! Those models do not look like that! They have been photoshopped up the ying yang and they are perpetuating the LIES that you keep telling yourself-- that you aren't good enough, lean enough, small enough, pretty enough.

It's crap!

I truly believe it is so great to have DREAMS and GOALS--to run a race, to bench press a little heavier, to complete a triathlon, compete in a show, cycle faster, win a ball game or whatever your thing might be-- but setting these goals in terms of a scale number,or a body fat percentage, or for when you look like a unicorn--is setting yourself up for failure. You can work hard, you can improve your skills, you can train your body and your mind to become a champion, but you can not train yourself to become someone you are not. You will never look like THAT model, sure you can look like a model and become a successful one if that is what you choose--but don't think for a second that when you arrive on that magazine cover, or in that article that the self doubt goes away. There will always be someone bigger and better, faster, prettier, smarter--there will always be! Stop punishing yourself for that and be the best dang YOU that you can be.

A friend said this to me once, that her father or grandfather and said to her--I think he was a pastor and it really meant something to me and I hope it will to you too.
"There is no perfect. Strive but honor the body you have been given for you were fearfully and wonderfully made."

Tell yourself this. Everyday. You are beautiful, because of who you are and who you are striving to be, because of Who made you, and because you are the only YOU there will ever be. Honor that.

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