Body Acceptance

I recently read an article that attempted - awkwardly and unsuccessfully - to promote "body acceptance". After some reflection, I think maybe the article itself wasn't the problem; my outlook is.

You see, there's a fine line between accepting your body and ignoring it. Or maybe I should say "neglecting" it. After a drastic rise in eating disorders in the 90s and early 2000s, partly (and superficially) blamed on the "heroin chic" look of models, we've finally come to a point when young women are encouraged to accept their bodies and treat them well.

This is the kind of body acceptance I can happily get behind.

And of course I'm delighted and supportive of this. Like many women - hell, like many human beings - eating disorders have touched my life in many ways. I don't write this with flippancy, and I don't take the issue lightly either.

But I am uncomfortable with the fact that suddenly any encouragement of healthy lifestyles seems to fall into one end of the spectrum or the other. We see women and men forcing themselves to exercise beyond what is necessary or deemed healthy; we also see them turning their back on any kind of self-improvement and hiding behind "body acceptance".

Should we accept our bodies? That shouldn't even be a question. Our bodies are fascinating machines; they work in ways that, to me, sometimes seem almost magical. It's mind-blowing to know the details of how our systems work to moderate our breathing, our temperature, our blood-flow, our energy...How can anyone look at the trillions of cells working in harmony to create a human body not find it miraculous?

Nature and its inner workings never fail to leave me awe-struck.

Our bodies are capable of amazing things. Running has taught me that. History has taught me that. We are physically able to do so much, and we are only here living our lives because we have a body to live in. Our bodies deserve to be treated well, taken care of, and respected. This means our bodies deserve exercise.

So why do I feel so uncomfortable with "body acceptance"? It's probably because these days that seems to be a euphemism for avoiding exercise. More and more I'm seeing this weird battle about what makes a woman a "real" woman. It started as a way to empower those that didn't fit the ideal, which is something like 95% of us. But it's become an "us vs. them" mentality. To hear the rhetoric, either you're thin, fit, and smug about it, or you're overweight, sassy, and proud.

Exactly. Whatever floats your boat, ladies and gentlemen.

Fat-shaming and prejudice is despicable, whether a person is fat due to simple inactivity and overeating or a glandular disorder. I believe in loving our bodies as they are; I also believe in self-improvement.

I believe in pushing yourself to see what you can really be. I believe in testing the paradigms we surround ourselves with in order to test and realign our world-view and our idea of "normal".

Why is this a desirable mindset?

There has to be a balance between accepting our bodies, loving our bodies, and improving our bodies.

This is the same reason I feel uncomfortable when people talk about exercise as a form of bodily punishment, as if their body is a disappointment or a wayward animal that needs to be brought to heel.

Exercise has taught me to love and accept my body, not because it has changed my body, but because it has changed my mind.

I'm afraid I've written this whole thing and have no answers for myself. How do we balance body acceptance and improvement? How do we seek to "fix" ourselves while still loving ourselves? Why does "body acceptance" have to mean neglecting making healthy exercise and food choices?

I don't think it should.

And because I believe in staying positive, and I need to remind myself that not everyone out there has such a skewed outlook on health and what bodies "should" look like, here are links to two excellent articles about bodies and weight.

The Different Body Types of Olympic Athletes

Female Bodies: A Weighty Issue

What does "body acceptance" mean to you?
What are your thoughts on finding balance?

ABK

Sweating in the Classroom

As excited as I was to sign up for this weekend's half, I wanted to wait until I'd had a post-Ragnar run to see how I was feeling. I know that sometimes our legs feel strong enough, but then the first run after a big race is shaky.

Not so this time! Matt and I had a great evening run on Tuesday, and without even trying we pulled off negative splits with a sub-9 third mile.

Boom! I signed up for the race immediately after this run.

I added the Ragnar mask to my car. As someone who was once a hater of bumper stickers, I've got quite the collection going now.

It's like a secret high-five to other Ragnarians!

I realized this week that I forgot to post this picture and I really love it, so I'm posting it. Because this is my blog and I do what I want!

Meg, Margie, and me after our massages.

Our Spanish teacher has been doing T25 in her classroom after school, so on a whim I joined her Wednesday. Seriously, a group of teachers working out in a classroom to ridiculous music? How can cross-training get any more fun? Plus, working out at school with friends is a great way to stay accountable!

Who knows, maybe I'll finally get an 8-pack.

We did cardio and legs Wednesday, then the ab video Thursday. I'll do another run Friday, and the half is Sunday.

Hilarious. This workout is 8x harder because we laughed through the entire thing.

We don't have solid plans for birthday celebrations yet. It's a long weekend, so there may even be time to go home and see my mom to celebrate. (We share a birthday!)

In other news, remember Lauren Fleshman's infamous blog post highlighting what real bodies look like? She's at it again, presenting a challenge to women to post the photos of themselves that they hate. The photos that show them in a less-than-perfect light.

Click for the article.

The idea here is that our bodies are wonderful, strong, and powerful. They can take us great distances. They are amazing. The fact that we spend so much time hating on them is unfair. Posting unflattering photos is meant to be empowering. It to says, "Screw the beauty magazines! Look what my body can accomplish!"

So here are two of mine.

Overtaking my final kill last weekend at Ragnar.

Enjoying a nice paddle with Meg.

What's perhaps the saddest thing here is that I don't really like any photo of me, ever. I never think I look the way I "should". But my body is strong. It does amazing things. I'm grateful for the body I have, and I've learned to love it and appreciate it, even if I don't always love how it looks in pictures.

More importantly, I love it in real life.

I challenge you to join the movement.

How have your workouts been this week?
Do you like how you look in photos?
Have you ever tried P90X, Insanity, or any of those other programs?

ABK