I think you are on an amazing, creative and fresh new path here by bringing together in written format a conversation about the (falsely?) compartmentalized aspects of our lives. Fitness, nutrition, spirituality…why should these things be separated in our minds, or anywhere else? After reading your blog post just now, I found myself asking new questions of my own heart. “Shouldn’t my life as a Christian, which IS my life when all is said and done, be dictating my fitness goals? Why do I even have those particular goals…are they God’s goals for me at all? Is that bond with God through Christ that I have reflected in my choices of what I eat, when and how I work out, how I view my body, and so on? Am I allowing God into those areas of my life – nutrition, exercise, training for things like hiking [a personal goal I have], and body image – or have I been compartmentalizing in an incorrect way myself? Am I letting God into those areas properly, especially since I know that He wants to be the center of every single area in our lives?” Wow.

Your post has really hit me deeply tonight, as your blog entries always seem to do. Thank you for giving me food for thought once more, Marianne! 🙂

God bless you,
Liz

Love how you put it, Ingrid 🙂

Thank you for you comment 🙂 I hear and understand everything that you’re saying. I used to write the same things here on this blog. What would it mean if you could no longer do those things? What if you felt your body had left the team?

What I’m getting is *sometimes, some people* (like me) just swap the goal or swap the rational, but what’s behind it hasn’t even been explored. Last year, when my body “betrayed” me I was left feeling very similarly to how I felt when I was chasing a body fat %. I’m not saying that’s the same as you, but I hope that prompting this train of questions will inspire a conversation that will benefit the people who do struggle like I do.

Strength, beauty, body acceptance are all great as long as they not expected to answer some other question, like earning your value in society or feeling complete as a human.

I do have short or mid-term goals, like “deadlift 300” or “get back in last year’s jeans” but they’re milestones.

I learned that if I focus on my strengths, then my weaknesses will either take a back seat, or get better anyway. Yeah, my thighs will always touch each other, my boobs will always be small, and my shoulders will always be a bit square. I cant change that but man, I’m proud of what those thighs can do.

This has been incredibly liberating. I learned to trust my body more than I trust my mind, and I learned to be proud of where it’s taking me. I stopped thinking I needed to be “there” to be happy (that’s never going to be enough). I look at myself, and I’m proud of where I am, doing stuff I never thought I could do. My body and I are a team. Not enemies anymore.