On an every day basis, we are often bombarded with images of perfectly shaped women, selling promises of a beautiful body in exchange for buying their product. I know, it’s what sells, and everybody loves buying, but for a regular food-loving woman with a metabolic disadvantage like me, seeing bodies of women who were already born with figure cards stacked in their favor can be downright depressing.<\/p>\n
I know no matter how hard I try, I can never be as young, flexible, and as strong as the demi-goddesses of fitness. I say this with a serving of reality, because youth and time are commodities that cannot be replenished. I can’t turn the clock two decades back, and suddenly become the fittest woman on earth. I can’t push as hard, nor recover as fast as my 18 year old self. Even if Jesus powered my cells, I wouldn’t be allowed to compete with women half my age. <\/p>\n
Moreover, genetics is a real thing. If I was designed to be a pro-athlete, it would have happened a long time ago. I would have somersaulted and done back flips as a kid. I would have been able to touch my toes. I would have won sport events that I tried very hard at doing. I never did. I was a sick, plump child with lots of respiratory ailments. I could never do splits like my classmate Alice, nor run as fast as friend Mona. I was always plump, even when I didn’t eat.<\/p>\n
All my life I’ve struggled with my weight. My tiny Asian girlfriends delighted in striving for under 100 lbs, while I’ve never weighed lighter than 150 lbs from the time I was 14 years old. It didn’t matter if I had chicken pox, measles, or follicular tonsilitis. It didn’t matter if I went vegan, did keto, or ran 10k every day for two years. It didn’t matter that I did detoxes, or cut calories. <\/p>\n
I would screw my body up, drive my white blood cells up, iron levels down, and pass out on floors from undereating, but I could never go lighter than 150 lbs. Never.<\/p>\n
I eventually found out why in 2010. Three diagnoses later, I learned that I have a hormonal disorder that makes it near impossible for me to lose weight. Is is the reason why I couldn’t do anything to shed the weight since I was a child, and wait for it, there’s no cure. I have lived with it since childhood, and will live with it for the rest of my life. So they say.<\/p>\n
So why would someone with a broken body sign up to do the hardest and most challenging workout program in the world, at my age?<\/p>\n
I’ll tell you WHY.<\/p>\n
I am not so sick or so old that my body cannot be trained to move in ways that expand my life. Even if I can never be a Size 4, I don’t care. I’m done with making the excuse that nothing ever works. I may never be a viking warrior woman, but I can be the best version of me.<\/p>\n
There’s still so much I can do to serve God, and if I can improve my physical fitness to serve Him better, that’s all that matters.<\/p>\n
The LORD is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him–my father’s God, and I will exalt him!<\/p>\n
I am not trying to be the next Katrin Davidsdottir, I don’t have Viking genes. Nor am I trying to engineer a body that people will salivate just by looking at it… well… one can still dream! <\/p>\n
I am working out to be the best me. I’m training my mind and body to be strong, so that I can be strong for others. I am doing this so that I can manage my condition, and overcome what might happen if I were to do nothing at all. I am doing this to thrive in my own capacity. I’m doing this for God, for me, my family, and my community. <\/p>\n
Slowtard is better than nevertard. N’est-ce pas?<\/p>\n
I can always be healthier and fitter than yesterday. That’s all I aim for. <\/p>\n
On an every day basis, we are often bombarded with images of perfectly shaped women, selling promises of a beautiful body in exchange for buying their product. I know, it’s what sells, and everybody loves buying, but for a regular food-loving woman with a metabolic disadvantage like me, seeing bodies of women who were already […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3272"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3315,"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions\/3315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}