When you think of the word "fitness", what comes to mind? Think about the words or descriptions that come to mind when you think of that specific "f word". The old Jen would've thought of skinny/slender people and not eating much. Now, I think of these words/phrases:
- Can I go up the stairs without getting super winded?
- Can I bend over to tie my shoe?
- Can I pick up groceries and bring them to the house?
- Do I eat enough to fuel my day? (Today was a bad day for that and I'm paying for it tonight--yuck!)
- Can I walk around a museum or downtown without having to sit down for frequent breaks?
- Am I MENTALLY fit to get through the rough, emotional days that sometimes come at me from out of nowhere?
Guess what? Just because somebody's skinny or slender, doesn't mean they're healthy or fit. There is a lot that goes into the word 'fit' or 'fitness'. There are all types of people out there who hate the way they look, even if they're skinny. I have a friend who actually hates how thin she is because it's really hard to put on weight. I know.. "I wish I had that problem!" Did you know, just like there is such thing as fat shaming, there's also "skinny shaming"? People who can't gain weight often have problems with normal bodily function, just like people who have too much fat might struggle with normal functions as well! My friend constantly gets trash talked during lunch (mind you, these are ADULTS). She gets made fun of for how little she eats or how much she eats. She gets told that she'd "survive the Holocaust" with how little she eats--WTF???? Seriously.. she told me that a fellow teacher told her that. This is ridiculous. It has to stop.
The movie I watched last night, "Made for More" produced by Rachel Hollis (one of my favorite authors as of lately) showcased her 2 day workshop called "Rise". It's a women's conference that focused on self help and self love and goal achievement for women, specifically. Not to say that men couldn't benefit from this but it was focused on the hardships and the traumas that women face in society. Anyway, what I'm trying to get at here is that she facilitated an exercise during one of the conference days where a sheet of several sensitive statements were printed out, and everybody in the room had to check off which statement applied to them. The list contained statements such as "I was raped", "I was molested", "I lost a partner (to suicide/cancer/illness/etc)", "I've contemplated suicide", and the list goes on to touch on so many of the issues that affect us each day of our lives. When everybody was finished checking off their applicable statements, they had to fold their paper up, pass it several times to different people. Then, Rachel Hollis requested that every time a statement was read off that applied to what was checked off on their particular paper that they had in their possession, they had to stand up for that person. Can you imagine how powerful that was? And you know what the most powerful statement was that made probably 99% of the room stand up? "I hate the way I look." Rachel said that she cried on stage at that moment. She couldn't believe her eyes, just how many women stood up at that moment. How terrible is it, that we as women often HATE what they see in the mirror each day? Society has driven us to compare ourselves to other women or to hate what we see because, oh, maybe our boobs sag just a little or we have a scar on our arm or one eye might be a little droopy. Think about this. Let those statements sink in. You know what the most amazing part of that whole exercise was? It was the fact that those women, who had endured such trauma and hardship in their lives, were THERE. They survived. Rachel Hollis calls each and every one of us WARRIORS.
We struggle every day to stay fit, to get enough sleep, to get past our traumatic events or our insecurities, but we keep going. Most of us keep going because we are WARRIORS. We keep pushing, we keep forging ahead because we are STRONG. We are "Made for More" than just what we look like. We are way more than that. We must celebrate ourselves and each other and stand up for ourselves and for others.
I know that I got pretty emotional several times throughout the film. I urge you to find a location near you that is showing this movie. The next date is August 13th. If you're in the Boise area, both Edwards theaters are playing it. Go see it. You need this even if you don't think you do, you do. It's the best 90 minutes you could ever do for yourself. She even says in the movie, that if you don't have an hour for yourself, what are you doing? So true. I just can't describe how powerful her statements are to me, personally.
So, the next time you think to yourself, "I don't have time to work out" or "I don't have time to take care of myself"...what are you doing with that "time"?
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