"Thinspiration"? WTF?

Okay. I accept the last three words of this. For HIM? For cropped tops? For miniskirts? I'm awed at some of the things I see going around on Pinterest. Things that people who battle with eating issues or body image issues or weight are pinning. If HIM is your motivation, you will never get there. If how you look, vs. how you feel is all you care about, you are probably doomed. I run because it makes me healthy. It makes me proud of myself. It makes me feel as though I can make and achieve goals. Miniskirts and a body I am proud of may be nice side effects, but what I get out of running (or working out in general) eclipses, by FAR, any "cropped top". Give me a freaking break.

Really, thousands of people who have pinned this? You know who looks like this? maybe 1% of the world. 1%, or less. Why do we as women seek to emulate things that the vast majority of us simply CAN'T be? Now, I don't know this woman, she may be genetically blessed and super fit. Or she could be a long legged coke head. No idea. But I'm amazed at the people I see pinning this, even people I know personally who could probably never, ever look like that......and I just have to wonder, why??? Is that inspiring, or depressing? Is all this "thinspiration" simply sending people off to ding dongs and depression? Maybe instead of pinning unrealistic images or phrases like "being skinny tastes better than any doughnut" or whatever people should just stop the obsessing over what they think that they WANT to be, and become who they ARE.

Newsflash: 10 minutes of cardio and a set of lunges and abs are not going to make you look like this. Ever. This is stupid. Hours of working out, amazonian height, augmented breasts, and an extremely restricted diet, or simply amazing, rare genetics are. Pinning this workout, however, WON'T. I guarantee it.

I don't know what's up my ass tonight but pinterest really upset me. I think that the thousands of pins of fattening and sugar laden desserts pinned RIGHT NEXT TO women with giant augmented breasts and concave stomachs pretty much encapsulates everything that is wrong with our society, and why most people are fat. Fat and confused, about why exactly they are fat. Instead of pinning "thinspiration" they should be out DOING something. Its crazy to me.

I ran 6 on the treadmill today, trying to do a slow recovery run. Can I say that running slowly on the treadmill is pretty much painful to me. I mean literally, I felt some pain in my legs/ankles, which when I went up from 6.3 to 7.0 completely disappeared? I can run slow tempo or recovery runs outside no problem, especially when talking with a friend, but find them almost impossible on the mill. I shot for a 9:30 pace and ended up under 9. I then jumped on the stairs for 45 minutes ~ I usually cross train today but for some reason really felt that I needed the extra cardio. I think that missing my Monday Yoga class really threw off my routine. I feel great tonight, some tightness in my hamstrings but I plan to jump on the foam roller and work them out before bed. Nate is at school so I will be in bed early...........the frost warning has me not all that interested in the thought of a 5:30 run.....I think that I may get in another 6 mile treadmill run and a boxing class. I just realized that I was entering my stair mileage as cross training, but it was counting it into my weekly mileage, which I don't want, so from here out I'm just listing the time of the workouts, not the mileage.

One of my favorite parts of being an athlete is being able to eat whatever I want, in fact, having to sometimes force myself to eat more than I want, because I need fuel for my body. I can't stand the "real women have curves" thing any more than I can stand the "real women are bony" thing. I'm not bony and I don't have curves, I have muscles, and that is the way I am made. This whole "real women" thing is played out. All I know is that whatever their shape, "real women" should love themselves, not obsess over what they aren't or what they wish that they were. I believe that our bodies are made to move, and that our bodies and souls are happiest when being honored by exercise. That's just me. I don't believe that a sedentary lifestyle is healthy or honoring to ones body. But I also don't believe that obsessing over these women who 99% of us simply CAN'T and WON'T be is healthy or honoring either. Balance, people, balance.

Anyone else a little weirded out by some of the things they see pinned on pinterest, or is it just me?