This Is My Body

View original post and discussion on Facebook, here.

This is my body.
This not a before picture.
This is not an after picture.

This just happens to be what my body looks like on a random Tuesday in December of 2015 — it's a life picture.

This is a body that loves protein and vegetables and queso and ice cream.
This is a body that loves bent presses and pull-ups and deadlifts and sleep.
This is a body that has been abused with fast food and late nights and stress.
This is a body that has been pushed to the brink of leanness in figure competitions and maximum strength in powerlifting meets.

This is a body that begged for mercy when it was diagnosed with Hashimoto's and PCOS.

This is a body that has been called:

• too fat
• too thin
• too masculine
• too strong
• too weak
• too big
• too skinny

...all within the same week.

This body has been publicly evaluated, judged, and criticized, and those judgments have been used to determine my level of skill as a coach and a trainer, and my worth as a person, both positively and negatively.

Some people say they would "kill to have this body."
Others say they would "kill themselves if they had this body."
(Yes, unfortunately that's actually a thing humans say to one another.)

This is a body that I spent too much time, energy, and mental space wishing would look differently.
And today?

Today this is a body that is loved, adored, and cherished by the only person whose opinion matters — ME.

This is the first year in as long as I can remember that I have made NO resolutions to change the way my body looks.

This is a kind of freedom I didn’t think I’d ever experience, and it feels really, really good.