Loving our body

Are you happy with your body?
Do you think that you could loose a couple pounds?

The thing is, to love our body in general, is such a difficult and controversial subject to talk about. If you have a certain opinion, and share it on social medias, it’s almost certain you are going to be met with a hurricane of criticism. I’m not here to say what body type is better. What I am here to say its that, Everyone is beautiful.

 One thing that is certain, “body bashing” of random people on social medias, of our friends and families, and mostly of our own bodies, has got to stop. Why people feel the need to bash other people, instead of encouraging and helping our fellow human beings, still really baffles me. Big, small, square, rectangle, round, beanstalk, pear, coconut, pineapple, lime, piña colada … who really cares what our bodies look like, as long as they are healthy.

 The numbers on our scales and our BMI’s ( body mass index ) are also not the best ways to gage if our bodies are in good shape. Nowhere in the BMI calculations, weight divided by height squared, does it make the different between fat and muscle. The number you see when you step on the scale, doesn’t take that fact into consideration either. As you know, muscle weighs more than fat. You can have lighter people that are healthy and some that aren’t, people that are heavier that are healthy and others that aren’t. What really ends up weighing us down, are unhealthy life habits. 
Growing up, I was raised by a mother who taught me that the most important thing is what your body can achieve, and not what it looks like. So, I count myself really lucky to have never had many body issues, other than my chronic illnesses. It was drilled into me at a young age, that it is much more important to be able to kick butt at sport, or to climb that mountain, than to look skinny. Growing older, it would break my heart, to see my mum, the same person who taught me to love my body no matter what, to be ashamed of her own. This beautiful human being, that could probably kick any guys butt in any sport and is more flexible than me, would be ashamed to show her tummy because of the excess skin. That skin, by the way, is due to two c-section births.
Our bodies are powerful beyond measure. We tend to forget how strong we really are, and what our bodies can achieve. Think overcoming illnesses and colds, reaching goals like climbing a mountain, becoming more flexible, rehabilitation after an accident, childbirth … I could go on forever. We recognize the concept that we aren’t perfect. But still we hate on our bodies like we aren’t in charge of ourselves. Somedays you will want to binge watch a show on Netflix, other days you might want to run a marathon, and that’s totally okay. 

You do not have to be a super star athlete, I know that mindset is not for everyone. Just find an activity that get you moving and that is fun at the same time! I guarantee you, that once you see what your amazing body can achieve, you will have no choice but to fall in love with it.

Photo: Alexandra CD Photography