New Year, new you...new weight loss commercials?
Every time I turn on the television or get one of my magazine subscriptions in the mail or scroll through my twitter timeline everyone is talking about harnessing your inner skinny girl for 2013. You've seen the commercials... You have Marie Osmond fitting into her old leotard, whether or not we really needed her to do that. Then there's Jennifer Hudson and Jessica Simpson, breezing down the street separately talking about their food and their fitness (in heels, nonetheless) and miraculously making their way into the same coffee shop, on the same street, where they will undoubtedly order a point friendly skinny latte.
These ladies look great but let's step away from the TV and the glossy ads for a second and let's get real. In a few weeks, the Resolutioners aiming to live up to the ideology representative of these commercials and presently crowding your local gym will thin out. But not in the way that they hope or that you'd imagine. Instead, they'll eventually get sick of hunting down spots in the parking lot at LA Fitness or their new workout gear will have lost its luster and they will be back to parking their tushes on their microsuede couches.
I don't say this to be cynical. I say it because we've all done it, myself included. And the majority of us will continue to do it. At least until we dissociate ourselves from the idea that the number on the calendar has anything to do with the number on the scale. We do not want to be thinner/toner/tighter because it's 2013. We want it because we wanted it in 2011 and 2012. And if you still want it and haven't accomplished it, its because it was more about the presentation and less about the motivation.
There's no shame in that. There's more of a camaraderie actually. We're all Resolutioners at heart. Ones with every intention to eat better, swear less and see our friends more. I started my list a little earlier this time around. I wish I could say that it was out of a desire to be kinder to my body or my self esteem. But it was more like the threat of rocking a bikini for a week on the high seas. You see, my friend, Steph, and I are embarking on a Caribbean adventure in a few weeks and it wasn't until we paid the balance for our cruise right after Thanksgiving that reality -- and panic -- set in.
We're going on a vacation, after the holidays, where swimwear is a prerequisite.
Cue the low carb grocery run and the love/hate relationship with Jillian Michaels. And now fast forward to January. I am a little toner and about 4 to 5lbs lighter depending on what time I compulsively weight myself. This is something I'm only slightly embarrassed to admit mostly because if you own a scale, aren't a size 0, and have ever gotten yourself 'ready' for vacation/wedding/reunion, you've so done this, too. But anyway, 12 days into 2013 and with a little more than a month left to go before Steph and I set sail...something kind of clicked.
There is more to this losing weight business than looking good in a bathing suit. Crazy, I know.
Let's tick off just a few of the other perks, shall we? Health. Self esteem. Stress relief. Glowy skin. Energy.
I actually feel better when I don't rely on fast food and my hospital night shifts are much easier to get through when I have extra energy from working out. And I generally tend to beat myself up a lot less. Hell, sometimes, I even feel downright accomplished. Not just from the euphoria of that number inching it's way down on the scale. But because the number of times that I chose to do something good for my body shot its way up. There is beauty in big numbers, ladies.
And there's also a beauty in not looking like every other skinny bitch in the magazine. If you do, then all the power to you and your amazing self control or God given genetics. Me and my Kardashian-esque curves salute you as we truck through the next four and a half weeks with this newfound perspective and the realization that there are bikinis I'll actually fill out in ways the unrealistically skinnier version of me never could. The grass is always greener on the other side, even when it's your inner stick-thin supermodel watering it.
This Resolutioner is going to vow to be healthy and to do something for my body and not to it, with however many workouts I can reasonably squeeze in between curing childhood cancer. Yes, they'll still involve more Jillian Michaels and less carbs than I would normally subject myself to...but I can be kind to myself and realistic at the same time. And I hope you all do the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment