Obsessive women

Hey there everyone! I hope your week is going well. I'm sitting with my ankle propped and icing while I write this mini-rant that's been brewing in my head for a while.

I have some pretty strong beliefs, but I don't actually enjoy getting up on a soap box unless I feel its necessary. I don't talk about politics except to family and the BF, I don't like crazy activists and I don't like getting into other people's business. Today's rant however is not necessary based on situation but on my ever growing annoyance that has grown since my involvement in Pintrest.

I think maybe we should all talk about this.

Who loves this new "fit is the new skinny" movement? I do! I really do, I'm not about to knock on the attempts of everyone, including me, trying to raise awareness on living healthy. I will however tell you what I do not love.

Remember when skinny was awesome? Every celebrity, model and rich person was rail thin. And if they were not in that category they were criticized on the cover of some trashy magazine.  Media has since then pushed the view that it's extremely unhealthy to strive to be as skinny as models and that it is ridiculous for them to be role models for kids. I completely agree.  So now, instead of skinny, it is fit.  What a buzzword: "fit". It's all over the Internet.

Let's look at some pictures off of the "fitness" section of Pintrest. 

I would consider myself "fit". I eat above-the-average-healthy-lifestyle for a 23 year old. I run (maybe not this week but you know what I mean), I lift weights, I do ab exercises etc. I can honestly say that if I am to have a regular job where I work 8-5 and keep the rest of my life sane, as well as have a social life I am happy with, I could probably never look at this. I am around 5' 9" and I weigh 136lbs. I don't have anything close to a 6 pack. I'm lanky and lean and am on the low end of the BMI scale for healthy but seriously, I will never, ever look like that.


Does anyone else agree?
Look at that first picture. Perfect abs, perfect (fake) tan, along with her perfect hair and makeup to take this picture with. Also, as someone who has size C, used to be D, boobs I can tell you to have that low of a body fat percentage to see abs like that there is a slim-to-none chance you have epic boobs.

What is wrong with women? Why is it that we cannot strive for anything but an extreme?

I was a chubby kid growing up. I think my jeans peaked size 14 in middle or high school. When I got to college I drank a lot and was still chubby (not like that, maybe a size 10). I then moved in with 2 people who were battling anorexia. Talk about a mind-mess-up. My relationship with food had never been sound before that but after it was absolute crap. I obsessed over food and what I was eating. Who doesn't want to be skinny?

I never got as bad as it could have been. I grew up in a house that ingrained "food is fuel" into my life. I knew there was a threshold of OCD eating that I just would never break for fear of my body crumbling under me.  It took a while for me to get my relationship with food back. I still struggle with it. I would never say I had or have an eating disorder. I would say I had bouts of "disordered eating" which I read an article about in Runner's World. I was just very strict. It took me getting into running and figuring out the weight my body felt the most comfortable at to STOP counting what I ate every day. Even now I'll catch myself doing it.

I saw media and social pressure mess my view on food up, so yes I am happy that fit and fun is the new push. I love the boot camps, the zumba classes, the crossfit women who are so motivational, BUT is anyone else worried that it's just going to end up as another obsessive media and social desire?

I worry about women sometimes. Pinning up these pictures as "motivation" or as "bikini season bodies" that they want. Now I just see girls in the gym for hours, probably hoping that one day they'll walk out looking like one of these women. Oh and don't forget the other side of girls who don't spend hours but wish they had the "push" to do so. It's ok! I wouldn't want to spend 2 hours in the gym every day either. That's completely normal.

There doesn't seem to be middle ground. People talk about being confident and happy with the body you were given, but I feel like so few women actually understand that. I can happily say I'm just about there. I may have a bum ankle, but I can do other things. Any day where I can be outside, or up moving around whether it be for cleaning or running errands is a day well spent. It doesn't have to be a 15 mile run or a 2 hour workout in the gym every other day.

Here's my favorite scene from Eat Pray Love which popped in my head while writing this. She's so much more eloquent than me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZY86k2NjTY

I hope that all women can learn to live their life the way they want, love the body they have and not continually strive for this perfect body or that perfect body. Forget skinny or fit. How about just 'you'. Let it be and above all be happy!