Why things like 'Strong Is The New Skinny' hurts more than helps.

This post stems from thoughts I had after reading Skye's post 'Why "Strong is the New Skinny" needs to die.' Which I suggest reading, even perhaps, before my post.

Skye points out that the slogan is worthless now. If you were to google it, you'll see that indeed, you still need to be skinny. Along with all these pictures of women posing. Not ACTUALLY being 'strong'. This isn't empowering at all!

When I was overweight and doing nothing about it, all the ads about how women were only attractive or worth anything if they came in sizes 10 and under, fuelled my self worth.

However, all of these ideals confused healthy for me. I was convinced that people only ate right and exercised if they wanted to get skinny.
Take a minute to think on that one, because it was a BIG realization for me.

I ended up equating Healthy to Skinny.

Convinced that I was not genetically made to be 'skinny', I was on a mission to show that you could be overweight and still be happy with yourself. I wanted people to accept themselves for who they were. My energy was misdirected from all the misinformation. THIS is the problem with these types of ads.

You know what can also be so scary about 'Healthy = Skinny'? Some thin people don't realize the damage they are doing by living an unhealthy lifestyle. The damage that they are doing to their bodies doesn't necessarily show on the outside.

I still advocate for accepting yourself for who you are. HOWEVER, I'm a bigger advocate for also treating yourself right. You can be overweight and love yourself. You can be skinny and love yourself. The best way to love yourself? BE HEALTHY.

Five things that being injured has done for me.

Ok, quick recap for those just joining us.
I am overweight, trying to get healthy. I found out that I love running. I ran too much and now my knee is super angry-face at me.

Ok, now that we’re all caught up.

Five things that being injured has done for me.

1. I've been forced to try new things.

I got into a groove where I was running 3+ days a week and only picking up the weights when I couldn't come up with a good enough reason not to.
Now, I ride a recumbent bike, I lift weights, I go for walks, I even started going to Deep Waterfit!

2. I've had to refocus my goals.

Like I said, I was running a lot. This made me able to eat quite a few unhealthy meals a week, and still lose weight. However, now that I’m not running, I've had to become more nutrition focused. Which reminded me that I was STILL putting WAY more unhealthy foods in my body than I should have been. I had also started getting obsessed with running faster/farther. However, this interruption reminded me why I started all of this in the first place - HEALTH!

3. It has allowed me to connect more with my sister.

My sister (who is freaking awesome, BTW) has started her own health journey. However, she is not too interested in running. So I've been able to go for walks with her and we went to Deep Waterfit together too! Breaking out of the "need to run faster/farther" helped me remember that ANY exercise can be done with others!

4. It has given me the chance to prove how much I want this.

All too often, we are thrown a ‘wrench in the plan’ or a brick wall is put up to stop us. We then have to choose if we want to push ahead, or cave to the pressure. This is less black and white than I’m making it out to be.  However, it’s exciting to know that I want this badly enough to try out new things & step outside my comfort zone.

5. I've gotten quite the mental workout.

Anyone who has been injured before knows how hard it is to basically have life tell you “Hey, you can’t do that thing you love doing anymore.”
I've been through weird bouts of near depression. I've been sad about not running, sad when I know my friends are running and sad when I see other runners.  I was just starting to consider myself a ‘runner’… and now I feel weird saying it because I can’t run.
It has been hard to motivate myself to do workouts that take up as much or more time, but don’t burn near as many calories as running does. Running provides a release of emotions, a way to slough off the day. Then I'd kick myself for feeling negative about not running. As if I didn't deserve to feel badly about being injured.
Getting over THAT mental wall is the hardest part, in my opinion.

Basically, to sum things up: This injury hasn't been all bad.

It’s important to remember that you’re not the first to have an injury, hit a wall or feel sad about stuff. There are so many amazing blog posts and resources on the internet (and beyond) to help remind you you’re not alone and to help you cope/recover.

Also, don’t forget how important it is to share how you’re feeling with those who are close to you. You’ll never get help if no one knows you’re hurting.

1 2 3 4 - Feist (Ukulele Cover) [VIDEO]

Hello Everyone!!

I hope you like my new video! I am loving getting back into the swing of things. Hopefully this will conitnue!! :)

Happy Sunday!

Titanium - David Guetta (Ukulele Cover)

It has been WAY too long since I picked up my uke and even longer since I've recorded a video.

I'm a little rusty, but it was FUN! Let me know what you think :)

#PositiveThurs - Week 25

#PositiveThurs - Week 24

#PositiveThurs - Week 23

#PositiveThurs - Week 22

Hot Topic: Klout Scores

Klout announced a new scoring system today: "A More Accurate, Transparent Klout Score".

Admittedly, when I looked at my new 'accurate' Klout score, I just about cried. I dropped from a healthy 61 down 10 points. First thing I did was take to twitter and see what people were saying:


As you can see, there are mixed feelings. I mean, @IAmTimBaker is right - We are not our Klout scores. However, a lot of people have worked hard to get to where they are. I know there are a few 'camps' of opinions about Klout. Personally, I reside in the "I love Klout" camp, but just on the border of the "I'm obsessed with my Klout Score" camp.

I may be a little disappointed, but it just means that I have that much more room to improve. That's the way I'm going to look at it!

What do you think of the changes? Did your Klout Score drop?
I'd love to hear your thoughts below!

#PositiveThurs - Week 21

Too Transparent?

Hello all!

It's been a while since I've sat down to write a blog post. I got the overwhelming urge to type tonight and have a topic!
Here we go!

So the other night, someone asked me to tell them a secret about me. Which I was all too willing to do... until I realized that I don't really have secrets. I'm a very open person. I share things. Lots of things... and outside of really personal things that I wouldn't tell my own mother I don't have secrets.

The question that came to mind from this is "Am I too transparent?"

When I was a teenager, I would go into chat rooms online. Random ones, I think there used to be a site called Talkcity.org (?? I think) that I would go chat in! I loved meeting new people.
I loved 'playing' 20 questions. A 'game' in which people ask questions back and forth until they've both asked the other 20 questions.
I found that you can tell more about the person by the questions they ask then the answers to the ones you ask.

Then Facebook came along and not only did I get to share what I thought and was feeling, I got to read others doing the same!
Then Twitter came along. Oh Twitter, I like you a lot. You allow me to connect with people and read about what they are thinking and feeling in a short, 140 characters or less.

I love sharing about myself and, in turn, getting to know others! Human connections are the most valuable thing in my opinion.

As a society, have we gone too far? Do we let the world know a little too much? I personally think that the more we share, the more we learn.... what do you think?