As I watched my college football team play in a bowl game yesterday, I thought obsessed about female bodies.
Weird, right? But I think it will make sense very soon.
I listened as the announcers discussed various player statistics. They talked about weighted vertical jumps, how many HUNDREDS of pounds a particular player could hold while squatting, etc…
It was all about what their bodies could DO.
Glorification of strength and ability.
Because it was New Year’s Day, I couldn’t help but compare this celebration of the power of the human body with the (diet) deprivation so many individuals, especially women, were beginning on that very same day.
As the game progressed, I wondered ::
- Why, as women, do we notice so little of our bodies’ abilities and instead focus almost exclusively upon the number on the scale?
- What if we stopped trying to beat ourselves into weight loss and loved ourselves there instead?
- What if we thought of exercise as a way to give something to our bodies, instead of expecting our bodies to give something to us?
Deprivation is fleeting. And through countless years of diet failure most of us have already proven that beating one’s body into weight loss is NOT sustainable.
So why do we keep doing it?
The good news is, there’s another way.
Choose to celebrate your body and its abilities. (Just like they do in football.)
Choose LOVE. (Trust me, it feels so much better!)
The funny thing is, when we choose self-love over deprivation, that’s usually when we finally lose the weight for good.
After all, we take care of what we love.
What’s one way you can choose self-love over deprivation today?
Remember, if you need any help – that’s my specialty.
Piper
{Photo courtesy of beatboxbadhabit. Click for details.}
