Today's thoughts

Today I read a forum post about a girl who has been photo-shopping her online photos. It is sad to me that a person would feel the need to keep up this image of herself from a point in her life where she suffered with anorexia. She is supposed to be in recovery and is still trying to keep up the appearance that she hasn't gained much weight back from the recovery...

I really wish the best for her and for her to really embrace the recovery and all of the things that come with it. I'm not only talking about the weight gain that comes with eating correctly, I'm talking about the freedom that comes with being yourself. The freedom that saying 'hey, this is what I look like and I love myself.'

It takes a lot of courage and strength to love yourself despite what the media says, despite what your followers say, and despite what your own brain may think..

I admit that reading through her blog I felt as though I wasn't good enough. She's a beautiful woman in her real life and in the carefully constructed images that she allows on the internet, and I felt that I do not measure up.. I automatically jumped to 'oh, I have to really start eating better' and 'man, I really need to put more efforts into my workouts', but neither of those things make up who I am as a person. I am so much more than eating clean and working my fat off... I am:

• A woman who has over 11,000 in her bank account saved for a house.
• A woman who was offered a full time job before she even graduated college.
• A woman who has a man who loves her for way more than what she looks like.
• A woman who enjoys running and wants to run the Boston Marathon one day.
• A woman with family who accepts her strange behavior and loves her anyway.
• A woman who loves pokemon, video games, movies, hiking, swimming, running, reading, laying in the sun, going on road trips, eating ice cream, eating in general, and loves her job.
• A woman who plans to have her 65k in student loans paid off in 4 years instead of then 10 that the banks have her scheduled for.
• A woman who's car is quickly reaching 250k miles and shows no signs of slowing down.
• A woman who will get married and have kids and will teach them how to eat and how to love the run and who wants to keep her family active and healthy.
• A woman who is so sad for others who can't see the beauty in themselves past what they look like.

If I can do one this with this blog, I hope it is to inspire others to live their life how they want to and to not be ashamed or fearful about what others will think of their actions. Life is meant to be lived and not to be placed in the correct light to try and force others to believe that it is so much better than it actually is. If your life isn't what you're proud of, go and change it! Do something new that excites you and then let it help you grow.