Body Image

"A woman is often measured by the things she cannot control..She is measured by the way her body curves or doesn't curve. By where she us flat or straight or round. She is measured by 36-24-36 and inches and ages and numbers. By all the outside things that don't ever add up to who she is on the inside. And so if a woman is to be measured, let her be measured by the things that she can control, by who she is trying to become. Because every woman knows measurements are just statistics, and statistics LIE."


Body Image (noun): a subjective picture of one's own physical appearance established both by self-observation and by noting the reactions of others.

From the time we are old enough to think for ourselves we are constantly and painfully aware of what our bodies look like at any given moment. We are aware of what we are putting or not putting into our bodies and how that will make us look. We are sitting uncomfortably in our chairs so that we don't have that roll going over our jeans. We are killing ourselves with hours at the gym, or starving our bodies of the nutrition they so desperately crave. We are picking at our skin, plucking at our eyebrows, putting on makeup. As children we are comparing ourselves to the kids on the playground, the kids sitting next to us in class. As teenagers we are looking in the mirror comparing our bodies to the girls on tv and in the magazines we read. As women we are constantly comparing ourselves to other women, other moms, our friends and even ourselves. In our pubecent years, before our hips got wide and our crows feet reared their ugly heads...when we were little girls we wanted to be grown women with the curves that came with it...now we are grown women who think we are all fat and want to loose 10, 15, 20 pounds so that we can look like those little girls we once were. We spend countless dollars on personal trainers, the latest diet fad...my drawers are filled with cast away skin care products that didn't fufill their promise to make my pores look fifteen again, or make my dark circles magically disappear over night. Are yours?

What does beautiful mean to you? What do you admire most about your body? Right now think about that for a second, give yourself a minimum of five compliments...go ahead, I'll wait.


...Do you feel better now? You should. You know yourself better then anyone, inside and out. Your oponion of your body, of yourself holds more weight then that of anyone...as it should.

Men take note, we do not need your oponions of our body. EVER. Unless it's positive, seriously keep it to yourself. I can remember word for word things boys said to me when I was 9, those same things played through my head at 13 when I skipped a meal and lived off of papaya flavored high fructose corn syrup. Seriously. The girl who has changed her life for the better, deserves to be praised for that. She does NOT, I repeat DOES NOT need you to tell her your oponion of her body. Your mind is small and your oponion is irrelevant. But don't think for a second that it doesn't hurt her, that it doesn't bother her...because it does. She will think about it now in the back of her head when she looks in the mirror.

As women we are so often praised, and praise eachother for the way we look. I used to love people telling me "oh wow you look so skinny"...now it kind of annoys me. I'd much prefer someone see that through my weight loss I have become a stronger woman. Through crossfit I have found more confidence. Through countless drops of sweat, and sometimes even tears I have found a power inside my soul I never, EVER expected to find....But I did. I'm more proud of who I have become than any number on the scale or a smaller pair of jeans.

We are all beautiful beyond measure.
Stronger then we could have ever imagined.
I believe that each of us is fearfully and wonderfuly made by GOD our father.
You are perfect.
...Just the way you are.
Not because you fit in your pre-baby jeans, or because your new face cream and spray tan make you look 18 again...
But because you are YOU.
Love yourself, and remind yourself how wonderful you are every day.
Let us remind eachother of how strong we are, and let's not let other people distroy our sense of self.
You are exactly who and what you are supposed to be in this moment, at this time.