♥ on being healthy.

i have never been much of an athlete. i have never participated in
 any type of sports teams, never purchased any real athletic gear,
beyond a yoga mat (that i bought at marshall's. does that count?)
and  i feel like a fraud whenever i lace up a pair of sneakers.
but- that doesn't mean i don't know the value of
 good exercise and healthy eating.

 via bust magazine.

on the plane ride to san francisco, i read this great article,

 "how to love exercise," by virginia sole-smith in the latest edition

of elle magazine, and immediately dog-eared it to show my 

best friends and sisters when i came home.

because we are women, and because it is instilled in us that we should

eat, exercise and exhibit our bodies in a certain way, we are all held to

an almost-impossible standard of perfection that no amount of

air brushing or dieting can keep up with. rather than considering 

our health, which should be the main reason for working

out, we are laden with the guilt of being something

our bodies might not even have been born to be:

stick-thin and always, bikini-ready.

according to the article,

“many women hate to work out because we’ve been taught to do it for

 the wrong reasons.” according to research by [michelle] segar and others, 

most of us exercise because we want to lose weight, but we give up when 

the pounds fail to come off quickly enough. in fact, according to one of 

segar’s studies, women who cite weight loss as their primary motivation

 for exercise actually exercise less than those who cite other reasons.

given how many women want to be thin—45 percent of women are 

on a diet on any given day, and 83 percent of college-age women are 

on a diet (regardless of how skinny they are)—i was surprised. 

but as segar explained, “the problem is that this negative message

frames exercise as something we should force our bodies to do, 

whether we like it or not, to meet an impossible standard.

 it’s fitness as the modern corset.”

instead of beating ourselves up over whether to exercise or

 not to exercise during a super busy week, you should realize that 

 "[in] cultivating your lifelong relationship with movement[,] 

only you can decide what that looks like day to day. consistency matters 

more than quantity. [and] if you’re truly motivated to make physical activity

 a part of your life, taking a day or even a week off is fine.

 you can trust that you’ll get back to it tomorrow 

or next week.”

so here's to meeting no one's expectation but your own,

and loving the body you're in right now,

no matter what shape it is.