Body Image

In school, I am studying body image quite a bit.  A common theme is that young girls and women have poor body images and judge their bodies harshly, due mainly to media.  What I'm learning is that we need to teach young girls and women that they don't need to judge their bodies based off of unrealistic, photoshopped people.  I agree.

However...

Something that has been on my mind lately is how many people take this concept too far.  I do agree that we need to teach females and even males for that matter, how to build a healthy body image of themselves and a healthy self-esteem.  But, I think we also need to teach them how to take care of their bodies.  Being overweight is not healthy.  Most people know that it can cause heart disease and diabetes, but many do not know that being overweight can cause a multitude of other health issues to arise.  Click here to read about health risks associated with obesity.

Our bodies function much better and even live longer when we take care of them.

We focus so much on teaching girls to love their bodies, and that they are perfect just the way they are.  Which is important.  But it's also important to know that we ALL could stand to live a little more healthy of a lifestyle.  In teaching these girls to love themselves just the way they are, we can also, unintentionally, be teaching them that they don't have to strive to be healthy.  We could potentially be teaching them that its acceptable to be overweight.

I do agree that girls and women should love their bodies, and not covet what others have.  Because God did created us, He created us in His image (Genesis 1:27), and he saw that His creation (us) was good (Genesis 1:31).  I do believe God wants us to take care of the body He has given us.  If our body was good for Him, the creator of everything we see in this life, then we should consider it good as well.

Our goal should be to understand that our body is created by the Creator.  He considers our body good, we also, should be grateful and thankful that God wanted to created us, and we should consider His work good.  In glorifying God and the body he gave us, we should WANT to take special care of it.  Our body is what He gave us to live this life in.  It should be important to take the very best care of it we can.  By striving to take good care of our bodies, I believe God see's this as a sign of honoring Him.  We are bringing Him glory by acknowledging that our bodies, His creation, is worth taking special care of.  Obviously, I'm not God, and I don't know His thoughts - but these are simply my conclusions based off my understanding of Him.

Take time today to do something healthy for your body.  It will appreciate it.

  

Eat more, weigh less?

For far too long (a few weeks now) I have noticed that my weight loss has stood still.  In fact, I may have even gained a pound or two back.  What happened?  I was in a groove, I was losing weight, then BAM!  Nothing.  Well, a weight loss plateau is considered to be three weeks of no progress, I think it's safe to say, I have hit my first plateau.

So, what now?

After researching reasons for a weight loss plateau, and figuring out my personal BMR (basal metabolic rate) I narrowed it down to what I THINK is my daily caloric intake being too low.  Meaning, I'm not eating enough calories everyday.  WHAT??  My words exactly.

Apparently when you are trying to lose weight, if you start eating too few calories, your body doesn't compute that you're doing so on purpose, and goes into "starvation mode".  Therefore, your body begins to STORE all the calories you consume rather than burning everything like you want it to.

Solution?  EAT MORE!

This is a really difficult concept to wrap by brain around.  Making myself eat more in hopes that I will begin losing weight again, just seems.... wrong!

So... I have decided to try eating what I should be (according to my BMR and activity levels).  We will see how this goes.  I won't lie, I'm still skeptical.  However, I'm willing to try in order to get out of this rut.

Here's to eating more to lose weight!!

Amateur Runner

My entire life I have always been inspired by runners.  I was in awe of their dedication.  I was in awe of the fact that they could run more than a mile effortlessly.  I always aspired to be like them - running miles on end without stopping and feeling energized for the duration of the run.  I craved their love for running.

Following my dreams, I have tried running before.  Let's just say, I was terrible!  It took me around 30 minutes to "slowly jog" one mile.  And I hated it!  It was so hard.  I couldn't breathe.  I felt like I might collapse at any moment.  I felt my dreams of becoming a runner crashing down around me.  I told myself that my body was not built to run like that.  I did not have a runner's body. 

Hogwash.

In December 2012, a good friend and I decided we needed to start being fit.  We were both unhappy with our bodies, and wanted to change that.  Low and behold, we both had dreams of running a 5K one day.  One day.  That day didn't feel close at all.  

So our journey began.

That first day in December, we were both so out of shape.  I, myself, could barely "slowly jog" a quarter of the football field track.  I'm not talking a quarter of a mile.  I'm talking a quarter of ONE lap around the track.  There are four laps in one mile.  So on that first day, I struggle desperately to slowly jog 1/16th of a mile.  (I think that's right? My math is horrible.)  

Yesterday, not even two months from our starting date, I was able to moderately jog for 2.22 miles without stopping.  Talk about progress!!  I have been amazed at the progress we have made in leaps and bounds.  Not only has our distance improved, but our time has improved as well! 

Tomorrow we start week 7 of the Couch-to-5K training schedule we have been doing.  There are only 8 weeks total - I'm so excited!  I can't believe we have made it this far without giving up, without stopping.  We are almost to the finish line!  Our dream of running a 5K is literally JUST AROUND THE CORNER!

I can't say that I'm by any means an advanced runner, but I can say that I'm a runner!  I am surprised by how much I love doing it!  That has always been my dream, to be a runner than LOVES running!  I wanted that - and now I have it! 

So never give up on your aspirations in life.  If you want it bad enough, and try hard enough, you might just be able to attain it. :) 

Live joyfully, live peacefully, and live lovingly.