Hello fitness friends!

I hope you are doing well. I hope you are taking care of your body, soul, and spirit. All three need TLC (tender, loving care). 

Over the past few months I have been reading more articles on loving your shape, embracing your unique body, and working with what you’ve got. 

It brings such confidence to love the body we have, accept it, and seek to enhance/embrace what we have. 

We were not created or designed to look like everyone else. 

We are individuals, unique, and our structures are impacted by our DNA. We can cut, nip, tuck, modify, liposuction, starve, take suppliments, and seek to change the outside, yet health starts with loving who we already are. 

Once we love who we are, our shape, our genetic makeup, then we can seek to work with what we have been given. Healthy inside (soul-mind, will, emotions), leads to healthy outside. 

Example. I am curvy. I have been curvy since maybe 14. I hated that I was the girl who looked more like a woman than a girl. Why? Because boys and grown men looked at me in ways I did not like. 

We spend lots of time talking about how men are visual and women need to cover up, yet some things can not be hidden unless you wear parkas or tents. 

A young girl should not be shamed for something she has no control over. Even in modest clothes, some shapes can be seen. I am not stating all attire is appropriate. I am saying self control is something all should learn. Children are not sex objects. People were not created to be objectified, but to be loved-and love does not seek to take or reduce people to objects for pleasure. 

I so wanted to just be stick thin, no curves. Well, that did not happen. 

At 16 I started exercising more, wearing hockey jerseys, eating less…all attempting to be comfortable in my skin and to cease being sexualized by men. I wanted and still want to be a person, not a sex object. I recall and hear the things men state about women they are overly sexually drawn to. They do not care if she has a brain, is courageous, compassionate, etc…they just see one thing-a mean’s to get their fantasy met. I have heard many men (I work with mostly men) say women are only good for one thing, meaning sex/reproducing children. 

Why do I tell you this story? Because body shaming does not just happen to heavier people. It happens to thin, curvy, all shaped people. Body shaming is not okay. For us to do to ourselves or for others to do to us. I found I started gaining weight and loving not getting male attention, at least not lustful male attention. They actually looked me in the eye, treated me like a person, not eye candy. 

I also found I needed to love the body God gave me despite the reactions of other people. I am curvy, a mesomorph (more muscle than fat), strong, athletic, and I own the body I am in…meaning I love my body. 

  
Once you embrace your shape, eat for your body type. 

I learned that my body works best when it is given more protein than carbs. If I eat too many carbs I gain fat. If I eat more protein I lose fat. I have a fast oxidizing metabolism. I have included the test below so you can see what type of metabolism you have. 

Oxidizer Test  

What works best for you? It is not about a number on a scale or other’s approval. Do you love you? Do you eat for your health? Do you like you? Does your body respond well to what you are eating? If not, what can you change? 

Here is another resource for you. 

Master Your Metabolism
Maybe that high carb, low fat diet or meal plan is not working for you because your metabolism works best with high protein. Maybe the calorie restriction is not producing results because the fuel type, food you are giving your body is not the right kind of fuel. 

Whatever you do sweet friends, learn to love yourself. Love your shape, treat yourself with respect and honor. You are fearfully and wonderfully made! 

Xoxo, 

Erin