30 Days of a Thankful Heart {Days 14 & 15} Motivation and My Journey to Being Soul Beautiful

If you are on Pinterest and have any kind of fitness board, you have probably seen this picture (and pinned it.)

I am on week 12!  I can attest to these statements above as pretty accurate.  I noticed some results around 4 weeks and friends and family are already saying they can see a difference since I started working out consistently.

When I began to work-out, after my second C-section in June, I was at 275.  Not quite the heaviest I had been, but close.  I was sick of not being able to do things I wanted to do, wear what I wanted, and feeling awful. I didn’t recognize the person in the mirror.  Even though I have been struggling with my weight since my knee surgery 10 years ago, I still don’t associate myself with the fat person I see in the mirror, because I know I am not that person.  I’ve been pretty and in amazing shape and I want that person back, inside and out.

I am not comfortable in my own skin.  But sitting around feeling mad or sorry for myself wasn’t going to help.  Only I could make changes to be healthier and happier.

Sexier?

I was checking my email when I noticed this image in an ad banner.  I almost gagged.

Image from Victoria's Secret Ad

I am sure that some of you think there is nothing wrong with this image.  Some of you will see nothing but a beautiful woman in lingerie (creeps), and come of you will see what I see; something scary.

Please, hear me.  I’m sure the model is a fine person, and this is not an attack on her.  She is a product of the fashion industry, reduced to skin and bones.  While she is very pretty, her form is sickly skeletal.  This type of image is everything that is wrong with our culture and the persisting images that ultra-skinny= sexy.  This is one major reason eating disorders are so dangerously rising in teens and tweens.  When you can LITERALLY see ribs and other bones jutting awkwardly from a person’s frame, they are too skinny.  There is nothing wrong with being fit, thin, and in-shape. I think we all need to find the healthy weight and shape that best fits us individually.  There is something wrong with this degree of skinny being hailed as “Very sexy, now sexier.”

Yes, the ad is supposed to be about the lingerie, which is really cute.  However, you can’t ignore the model wearing the items.  Despite the fashion industry’s best efforts to create models who are mere “hangers” for fashion, we do still see the models behind the clothes.  The image projected tells millions of females that unless you strive to look like this model, you aren’t sexy enough.

This image just makes me sick and very sad for the state of our society, and all those who will see images like this and think, “I’m not good enough.”

Hear me:  Yes, you are.