"You are not flawed, you are normal"

It's like the heavens opened up and the angels started to sing.

THIS blog is awesome.  THIS post is awesome.

This ideal, this body, that so many of us (not all, don't let me put words in anyone's mouth) chase isn't always physically possible.  This "perfect" size 2 or size 0, undimpled, smooth, blemishless, stretch mark free body, well the reality of it is that there are probably only a few people who actually have it without photoshop.  I will never have it, and there's nothing wrong with me for it.  I'm not NOT beautiful because of any of these things.  And if someone out there disagrees, who the F cares!?  You can't be everyone's ideal of beauty, wouldn't want to be because I am not here to be an object of desire for every douchey tool walking down the street.

I'm having these epiphanies left and right.  I don't have to be the smallest I can possibly get, eat as little as I can get away with without feeling like crap.  What do I want?  I want to be strong and feel good, and I am and I do, so I just have to keep going this same way.  I have this idea in my mind that I can't be happy until XYZ, NO!  That's ridiculous, I can be happy with my body now.  I get into the thinking "When my stomach looks like that, or when my legs look like this, THEN I can be happy", that's not a good or healthy way to look at myself.

This may seem like no-brainer stuff, or things I've already talked about, but it's like realizing it, REALLY realizing it is new to me.  The ideal, my friends, is to be healthy, love your body, and love yourself.  There's a way to accept yourself as you are, while still working to improve your fitness and overall health.  It isn't one or the other.  This is big stuff for me.

Cliche as it may be, the media perpetuates a message that women should be ashamed and embarassed of their bodies if there are any flaws.  They probably weren't considered flaws until the media decided they were.  I won't be one of those women, anymore, who longs to have that ideal body, I already have it.  MY body, which carried two children for 9 months each, labored and gave birth twice, has always done what I've asked it to, I'm allowed to love it NOW and not be ashamed of any of it.