Weekly posts (now on Tuesday nights) are still a go! However, 2,000 word diatribes on the ins and outs of body acceptance in Western society, not so much. I don't have time to write them, you don't have time to read them, enough said. So instead, I will be blogging once a week and trying to keep it short and simple while hopefully still providing tons of inspiration and food for thought.
Okay! Let's dive in.
On the agenda for today is something that has taken the internet, and many impressionable young girls, by storm the past few months, and that is "fitspo"- images of supposedly "healthy" women with inspiring quotes that are supposed to motivate you to get "healthy" too.
They look something like this:
Or this...
And they get me real riled up. But I usually just brush them off and figure we've all gone through that early teenage phase of trying to starve ourselves and we eventually realize bags of chips are delicious and you're never going to get that thigh gap back anyway, so why worry about it?
And then I saw this one:
This image has been circulating through social media for about a week now, and every time I see it I find myself just getting more and more frustrated, namely because I had hoped that by the time we reach motherhood ourselves, we will have given up on the vanity of focusing so much of our time and energy on self-appearance, as well as the self-deprecation that comes along with it ("What's your excuse?").
But then, lo and behold, a sister in body solidarity posted this beauty in response:
All I can say is glory, glory, hallelujah. First of all, can I just give some mad props to the wonderful husband undoubtedly who took this picture? You go, man.
Second, since when is raising three children an "excuse" for not being a size 2? Honestly, somebody clue me in here. Because I thought that once you went through the transformative process of becoming a mother, you got let off the hook a little bit. When we were learning about reproduction in 6th grade, they seem to have left out the part where if you don't have a rock-hard fitness-model body within a year of having a baby, you're officially a failure. I mean, you just created life for God's sake, I'm pretty sure you're allowed to indulge in a little ice cream! (Not to mention all those late nights staying up with the baby... forget the freshman 15, I'm talking about that first-year 15!)
More importantly though, I'm being honest when I say I think that second mom, the woman who's okay with having a little extra skin after giving birth to those three beautiful little munchkin faces, looks pretty darn happy with herself and her life. And you know what ladies (and gents)? It's okay to be happy with your less than perfect body. Who decides what perfection looks like anyway? There are a lot more important things in this world than the size of your waist. And while she may be carrying a few extra pounds of baby weight, I would say that that second mom, our inspiration for the week, has a heart that's way big enough to make up for it. So how about you let yourself off the hook a bit and realize that your body is far from the be-all and end-all of who you are? There are a lot more important qualities you should be defining yourself by that are much more indicative of the kind of person you are than the number on the scale.
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