Body Image Challenge, Day 5

EXERCISE FOR FUN

Choose a form of exercise that you ENJOY, a form you wouldn’t

normally choose because it calls attention to your body.

Exercise is necessary for health, but we have turned it into a duty, obligation and

punishment--something we do to “make up” for the food we eat. Women are bombarded with media messages that tell us we can’t run, swim, do yoga, or any number of things unless we have the “perfect” body. We must stop waiting to achieve perfection and live our lives to the fullest--taking risks, trying new things, and utilizing the unlimited potential of our bodies.

Journal: How did your body feel during and after your exercise? Reflect on the blessing of being able to move.

Healthy relationship between eating and exercising:

1. Exercise uses the energy that has been provided by foods eaten.

2. Eating Restores the Energy used by exercise.

Unhealthy relationship between eating and exercising:

1. Intentionally exercising to "compensate" for what was eaten

2. Eating so much as to not feel capable of being active

ha ha ha...

So many people look in all the wrong places to get "healthy" (like diet shakes, which are actually not very substantial or nutritious, who can live on those anyways, seriously!) When what we really need to be focusing on is health through living a balanced and active lifestyle. Its not our bodies that are the problem, it is society that's the MAJOR problem. They have confused us about what is really healthy and normal and what is not. They really don't care about our health or our self esteem, obviously. They just want to make money, and they're good at it. The beauty industry is a 6 billion dollar a year industry invested in making you feel like your not good enough, not skinny enough, and not pretty enough. There are a lot of people that make a lot of money off of women's distorted self image. There is always going to be a new quick diet or exercise solution as long as there is money to be made. Let's support or take part in the insanity! Why do we focus so much on toning, shaping, fixing, transforming, cutting, losing.....When the real issue here is HEALTH. If more people would focus on health and body respect rather than losing weight there would be more people getting off there hineys, getting active and eating more nutritiously. There would be less obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, you name it. So many people feel like they can never obtain the unrealistic beauty ideal in the media, So they give up all together. Some think they are too fat or they are too self conscious to be active. On the other end of the spectrum there would be a decrease in eating disorders, less self destructive behavior and less body hatred. If we would all embrace body diversity and change our focus from weight loss to health, a lot would change. Worst of all the term HEALTH is used everywhere to describe things that are clearly not healthy for our bodies. Thin does not equal healthy. Recognize that Health in today's society is majorly distorted.

Click here to learn 10 reasons why BMI's (better for business) are a terrible measurment of health...