Even though this blog is directed towards the ladies, men may benefit from it too. I know many men who also feel the pressure to possess a specific physique.
I want to get something straight here and be real before I go any further.
I do not promote any woman to be unhealthy and proclaim she's happy how she is in a body that is slowly killing her.
We were made to be confident not complacent.
Obesity is not okay.
Obesity is a slow death.
There is a difference between being a healthy curvy woman and a woman who is feeding herself into her own grave and claiming "curves are sexy."
Harsh? Maybe.
I see two things consistently:
1. Promotion of an unhealthy, underweight image.
2. Promotion of an unhealthy, overweight image.
Both are wrong.
Both are deadly.
Both could destroy you as a woman and strip your life of happiness.
Our society began to push the "stick thin" image on women for so long that we revolted in an extreme way and actually began to push the image of a "curvy is sexy, bones are for dogs" mentality.
We just can't seem to get it right.
Each woman is her own.
Each woman will not look like the other.
Each woman's healthy will be different.
Skinny is not wrong.
Curvy is not wrong.
Only unhealthy is wrong.
I've been on both sides of the spectrum before finally finding my own balance.
When I was a preteen, I was a total butter ball.
All my friends were transforming into young women with their training bras and forming waist lines.
Then there was me.
I still wore over-alls, had baby weight and honestly didn't need a training bra until high school.
I hated that I didn't look like all my friends.
Developing my eating disorder, I became a scrawny version of my old self.
Looking back on photos all I can do is scrunch my nose at the pale, flimsy looking girl looking back at me.
I think each woman has a moment of finding herself along her own journey.
That moment is hers and hers alone.
Some women find it in a man telling her she's beautiful.
Some women find it in a woman's conference.
Some women find it in sports.
We may be 16 or 96 but at some point we find ourselves fully woman and we can embrace our bodies as they are even if the world hates it.
I'm a fair skinned, short girl with minimum cleavage and will always appear a good 5 years younger than I actually am.
I used to always want to be tan, tall, slender and trade my frizzy locks for long silky ones like my sister.
But I had my moment in my walk of life.
I'm Britney.
Nobody else can be Britney.
I am a beautiful woman.
My body is a precious rental that God Himself chose just for me.
So when you find yourself wondering why running is so close to my heart, it's because running was my moment.
Yours will look different than mine.
You might find yours in the weight room or a delivery room.
My moment was found in running shoes.
Am I what the magazines call "hott?"
Uh no.
Will I ever find jeans that don't drag the ground when I walk?
Probably not.
Will I ever get that cleavage?
Probably not.
Will I wake up tan tomorrow ?
Probably not.
Am I beautiful?
Of course.
And unique.
If you've found your moment, I celebrate with you.
If you're still on your quest to find your moment, try new things.
Pick up roller derby.
Or power walking.
Or parasailing.
Or weight lifting.
A body belonging to a mother of 3 is just as beautiful as the body of a 20 year old.
No beautiful will look like the other.
Get healthy;
Whether that means eating more than two carrot sticks a day or finally chomping down on your first veggie.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:13-16 NIV)
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