Here is an exerpt from the article More to Love, "Feeling blah about your body? Join the club. I'm waiting for you on the beach chairs and we can clink glasses--cheers! Seriously, happy as most of us are to become moms, it's tough saying so long to our pre-pregnancy shape. Even if you didn't have flat abs before, it's shocking what carrying a person inside you for nine months can do, giving you everything from a sagging belly to a butt that's entered into a merger agreement with the backs of your legs..." She goes on to say, "Being healthy and happy is more important than being slim."
I'm tired of mothers publicly adhering to this resolve. They got pregnant, they gained weight and are now stuck with their "mom" bodies. Being healthy and happy are definitely at the top of my list AS are being strong, energetic and able to take on the physical daily demands that come with being a working mom and wife. Don't get me wrong, it was hard to motivate to get back into shape, especially while getting used to a new schedule and being in a perpetual state of sleep deprivation. No one said it would be easy, but when people read articles like this they are more likely to give up.
Let's set a good example for our kids in a society where one in three children are overweight according to the study titled “F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2010,” a dual effort by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Trust For America’s Health.
I say, we need to motivate each other, work together and encourage new mom's (and old ones). Grab a friend on the way to the gym, offer to babysit a few times while she starts a workout program, give positive reinforcements and lets all get back in shape together. How about "more kick a** moms to love"....Strong Moms ROCK!
I say, we need to motivate each other, work together and encourage new mom's (and old ones). Grab a friend on the way to the gym, offer to babysit a few times while she starts a workout program, give positive reinforcements and lets all get back in shape together. How about "more kick a** moms to love"....Strong Moms ROCK!
I had the same reaction to that article. The problem here, as I see it, is that too many people don't want to make the efforts necessary to be healthy. Because it takes efforts to do so, and they would rather just tell themselves that their state is the norm, and by that I mean the biological not social norm. It is frustrating to see anyone allow their health and life to pass them by, and it is even more frustrating to be faced with a media message that on the one hand pushes for unrealistic standards of weight loss and then glorifies accepting being overweight as though it were a medical condition that is inevitable and incurable. There is another key problem in this article, which is that being slim is confused with being healthy. As you know, it is true that as a result of healthy life styles one slims down, but just because one is slim dose not mean they are healthy. There are plenty of skinny people out there who could not run up two flights of stairs, have horrible eating habits and would be in a heap of trouble if they had to run out of a burning building or away form danger. But then again, they look good in a bathing suit so, does it really matter? Having written all this, watch out, because if you advocate for a healthy body and fitness you will be crucified for being elitist and insensitive to all the people who are unwilling to accept that they can effect their health and their fitness with work and dedication.
ReplyDeleteWell put shortyphd! I agree 100% about the slim = health part too. I didnt touch on this too much but it's a huge part of what got me going on this topic to begin with.
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