If you’re like the old me, you work out to get the body you want. That doesn’t sound too bad, but the problem was, I had a perfectly good body to begin with. I just needed to take care of it, not beat it into submission.
Ever heard the saying, “I wish I were as thin as I was back when I thought I was fat?” I was looking through old photos of myself at a family reunion lately. Damn, I looked good! What was I thinking? Why did I hate that body so much? Where was my self-appreciation? (Hidden behind the “Don’t get a big head about yourself” stories I learned as a kid. But that’s another blog post…)
These day, I workout because I love my body. I love the way I feel when my heart is pumping, the sweat is running down my face and I’m sucking air. I have to admit, there are more and more days lately when I’m just not ready to jump out of bed and pull on the spandex. Even on those days though, I make myself do SOMETHING. I know I’ll feel better after a huge fix of oxygen buzzing through my veins, so I just put one foot in front of the other until that oxygen-high picks me up and carries me along with the music or the rhythms of the world around me when I’m working outside.
Bottom line, MOVE! because you love yourself. Pay attention to how you feel after a great workout. Thank your body for all that it does for you. Say, “I love you!”