Is Strong Really The New Skinny?

 I was on the stair climber yesterday, that mind numbing machine that tries to inspire you to climb higher and faster by putting various buildings and monuments around the world. To beat back the boredom I picked up the equally mind numbing magazine, Shape, because of a certain celebrity on the cover that I was interested in reading about.

  As I flipped past page after page of makeup ads and articles on how to get a certain look, how to get an awesome butt, shoulders that look good in strapless dresses, recipes to help you lose weight, all just to get to a two page article on a celebrity that was really only in there to sell her clothing line of "active wear" and swim suits that look like they are best for laying by the pool and not swimming laps or playing at the water park with your kids (these types of suits made very difficult to find by the way,) the saying "strong is the new skinny" popped into my head.

  Years ago, as a newly married 19 year old, I had subscribed to this magazine, and as I look back I realize "strong" was never a word I aspired to. Nor was the idea of living a life of fitness and good health well into my senior years.

 All I wanted to, all I was programmed to want, was to look good. If this meant eating as little as possible to achieve that then I would do it. Exercise was just to get me that look, just like the magazines promised. Do this exercise and you will have the perfect butt, find out what celebrity X does to have those abs. It was just a bombardment of how females needed to LOOK.

  I started to really reflect on this, to wonder why I grew up needing to "look" a certain way (although like the majority of women I never actually did achieve that look.) In my introspection, I recalled all the fashion magazines that filled my childhood home.

 Gaunt, forever 21 and forever hungry, wearing clothes I would never be able to afford, adorned with makeup I would never have the time to apply, were the females that always stared back at me. Subconsciously these images melded into being, convincing me that this is the ideal female, this is who I should be.

 I never tried very hard to live up to this, don't let me fool you into thinking I became a fashionista that never left the house without perfect hair and makeup! Far from it, I actually did more of the opposite, partly due to my 6 foot frame and the difficulty in finding clothes that comfortably fit and partly due to my bank account that could never maintain that sort of a lifestyle, especially once kids came into the picture, but the bigger reasoning was I never felt like I could become that ideal woman in the magazines.

 It was an ideal too hard to attain. Every picture ever taken of me, I analyzed like a scientist searching through strands of DNA. I quickly ascertained that I was not picture material, so I avoided them all together. I ducked away from cameras pointed in my direction every chance I got.

 Fast forward to life with little boys and I knew that no way, no how, would my boys grow up looking at unrealistic images of women. I was thankful for grocery stores that offered "family friendly" aisles that little people wouldn't be eye level with cleavage and magazines entitled "have eye popping sex tonight!"

  I felt vindicated in my thinking on this subject when my oldest was around six years old, after seeing the cover of a magazine with a woman in a short skirt and plunging neckline, as we stood in line at Barnes and Noble, he asked me "why do ladies sometimes dress like they are naked?" I shrugged and said I wasn't sure, but a few years later we discussed how some ladies think that is what makes them pretty and what they think men want to see, and how movies and magazines teach a lot of girls that their worth is in what they look like.

 I am not naive enough to ignore the fact that males are very visual beings and my boys eyes' aren't ever going to be drawn to cleavage and short skirts with bleached hair and overdone makeup, but I do hope they have been brought up to look for healthy and active, like they have been raised, for their future life partners.

 Reading the book "Natural Born Heroes" really brought home the idea that our bodies, both male and female should be healthy and strong, for good purposes. For survival, for war, for the simple facts of enjoying life to its fullest! There is so much world out there to be explored, trails to be run (or walked) national parks to be explored, even if you aren't an outdoors person, museums and malls with miles of stores and art are there to be enjoyed and walked.

  I don't believe we are doing an adequate enough job of changing the narrative for our young people to strong is, and SHOULD be, the new skinny. I think we're getting closer, with the sudden explosion in spartan races and other types of events like tough mudder, but with as many of those that are gaining in popularity, Kardashian type lifestyles are gaining followers by the millions on instagram. How to get the "thigh gap," overinflated lips, and oddly shaped derrières are still a hot topic in magazines that target young women. Young men are still being bombarded with six pack abs and biceps really not serving any purpose other than to flex in the mirror while posing for a selfie, as the ideal man.

 We need to impress upon our young people that having a healthy body that can get us from point A to point B, should be our goal. Filling our vehicle (our bodies) with foods to adequately fuel us and keep us healthy. Finding role models, both real life and those in the spotlight.

  For my sons, their karate instructor who is almost 80 years old, still strong and nimble and still working at his landscaping job as well as teaching martial arts several times a week, is someone I point them to when we talk about a long life of fitness and health. Michael Phelps, an idol of my son that swims competitively, is an example of a strong, healthy body that is utilitarian, not just chiseled to grace the cover of a magazine.

 For myself, I look to people well into their 70's and even in their 80's, still running marathons and Iron Man races. Even 100 mile ultra runs. Our bodies are amazing works of art, given to us to enjoy life to its fullest, climbing mountains, swimming oceans, biking through countrysides or exploring city streets. They is so much more to living than looking good in a selfie in clothes made for mannequins! The only way to get this message across to our kids is to really get serious about teaching them that strong and healthy, not skinny, is a lifelong endeavor.

 It's definitely the message I wish I had learned long ago.

Running Partners

First of all, if anyone actually reads my blog I apologize for what a mess it is. I used to blog all the time a few years ago but blogger has changed, my laptop is old and slow so I typically write posts on my phone and I have yet to figure out how to post pictures. It let me post a couple and then not again so hopefully I will figure that out soon enough. I hate reading blogs without pics, so I know how boring that is. Running on the prairie is not all that scenic but once in awhile I manage to snag a deceptive picture to trick people into thinking the place is somewhat scenic. Can anyone tell I want to move back home?

  One thing I didn't really expect when I mentioned my runs on Facebook was that people would actually be inspired to run. I've never seen myself as the type to inspire people so this was kind of a surprise.

  I told everyone that mentioned it that I was happy to run with them if they wanted to get together and one friend finally took me up on it. She needed to meet pretty early, when it was still dark! But I went ahead and got my butt out of bed anyway. By our second run together, our sons had joined us!

  One big positive that has come from our move is the amount exercise all of the family is getting now. My oldest son and running partner has joined the swim team and doing incredibly well, my youngest has taken up martial arts and bikes or walks every day with his dad to hatch Pokémon eggs and I have goaded my husband into running again so he is following a Hal Higdon 5K training plan.

  Exercise is so good for everyone, our bodies were created to move, after all! So I am overjoyed that I might be the kick in the pants someone might need to get moving and get healthy. I keep telling everyone that last year I couldn't even make it to the end of our gravel road which is just about a quarter of a mile and now I can run a half marathon (albeit slowly!) so if I can do it, anyone can do it!

Runners that cheat

I first heard about people that actually cheat in marathons and other similar distance races in Runners World a few months back. What a bizarre concept! Why in the world would someone cheat in a race? I guess I see WHY pro athletes cheat when it comes to bettering themselves to keep their jobs, I don't think it is necessarily right of course, but isn't running races about self improvement and health? What satisfaction do you get by finishing a race by cutting through the course, or signing up for a marathon but actually running the half?

 Another way people cheat is to buy the bib of a runner that qualifies for Boston, or have someone faster then you wear your bib in a Boston qualifier. I just don't understand the psychology behind this.

Cheating is so common that they have actual committees that watch for it, studying previous times in races, whether times registered from their bibs when they crossed mats (if they didn't this is a good sign they cut through the course somewhere) sometimes they even need to look through race pics to look for cheaters. The first time I read about cheaters was a story about a man that the race committee noticed in a finish line pic. He wasn't in the best physical shape but he crossed the finish line looking pretty darn good, in a cotton t shirt with nary a sweat stain! Just that picture alone piqued the interest of the race committee and sure enough, they did some digging and found that not only was he a repeat offender in the cheating department but he also wrote checks that bounced for multiple races. I would love to know his reasoning behind this. Was it a good story to post on his Match.com profile?
 Here's a blog that is dedicated strictly to catching and researching these cheaters. I appreciate people that dedicate time for outing these people, hopefully it deters others that might consider doing this. Training for a race takes literal blood, sweat and tears and to see others take places in races that one must qualify for, or lie about their age to earn records, use others bibs to run races they didn't qualify for, it really and truly is a disgrace and these people should be ashamed of themselves.