1) You own only 2 regular bras which you grudgingly wear to work. The balance of your lingerie is made by New Balance, Under Armour, Sugoi and Nike.
2) You lead the office in terms of daily trips to the loolee, outnumbered only by the number of trips made to refill your water bottle.
3) Your daily lunch consist of as many containers as most people use in a week.
4) You wear a heart rate monitor as a watch.
5) The emergency preparedness kit in the trunk of your vehicle includes: a foam roller, therabands, shin guards and your Mom's million kitchen design samples. (Find the intruder!)
6) You generally eat breakfast #1 before the sun comes up.
7) You eat more than one breakfast.
8) You own more tournament/technical/sports event t-shirts than you do purses, non-sporty shoes or fingers and toes.
9) You start to seek out increasingly hellish ways to make your training more intense. Examples include training in peak heat, uphill when possible and sans visual aid (as evidenced by Simmirathon's scar),
10) Although you wound't dare tell a soul, you can spend hours watching those horridly corny NBC sport specials. I particularly love the yearly IronMan edition.
Oops, I somehow slipped in to first person...
On a more serious note, getting back to training for athleticism instead of aesthetics has moved my life in such a positive direction in the past few months. I can scarcely explain how my attitude towards my body is beginning to shift and how my views regarding the mind-body connection (my own, at least) are evolving. I won't make any secret of my views regarding the figure/fitness industry and my concern that it is positioning unsustainably low body fat levels under the guise of the "healthy lifestyle" label. I have the utmost respect for the efforts and wishes of my friends who compete in these contests, but I fear for the scores of women who, looking at photoshopped pictures of Oxygen cover models, are considering figure contests as a means to an end. Looking around me, the people with the most fantastic physiques and healthiest glows are all the people who simply have a passion for healthy living, fresh air and an active lifestyle. I'd like to take this opportunity to say that is NOT what I noticed first about Dave.
(I think they believe me!)
Is there anything wrong with wanting to look good? Absolutely not! I feel the same occasional nose-wrinkling emotions about my own figure as any girl, but if my body is the most impressive thing about me, then my mind is in trouble. It took me a damn long time to appreciate my body for being a very accomodating vessel (even at times a little TOO accomodating) and a means to living, rather than simply existing.
One of my strongest motivations for pursuing the study of Nutrition is because I believe with all of my rate-monitored heart that eating local, natural, whole foods (including occasional treats) allows us to spend the 14 hours a day when we aren't eating or sleeping, at our best. Sometimes I think I'd like to work in conflict zones, or for the UN World Food Programme. Other times I think I could spend my days having a personal practice or working with elite athletes. There are also days when I know that I want to help people walk out of the darkness of disordered eating and into the light of day although more often than not, these situations call for counselling and behavioural change as a prelude to conquering eating issues. I know that conventional medicine is not my calling, but I am certain that there is a kind of comfort that I wish to explore and combine with the theoretical knowledge that I need to connect with others.
This post has turned into a huge foray in to randomland, but by suzie, I needed it!
I wish you all experimental salads and sun drenched evenings in these final few days of summer.
P.S No training today :D
What do you think? Should we let her back in to the sisterhood now that she's smartened up a bit? Who said she smartened up a bit? Alternate caption: My sisters who have loved me through thick and thin. And yes, I've been both thick and thin!
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