
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. ~Theodore Roosevelt
one of these is not like the other. that's the text i sent to my husband when we were finished with our latest crossfit competition. standing on the podium, for the first time, with 3 other teams of women was very empowering. and kind of funny, honestly. we never really approach these comps as an opportunity to WIN - we just want to do well, and check our progress. of course, we are all competitive or we wouldnt participate - but winning hasnt really been the goal, so to speak. COMPETING is the goal. and we have learned some great lessons along the way. but this weekend was validating on a whole different level. because i have been preaching (and preaching) that it is NOT about appearance. strength and "beauty" are not mutually exclusive - and yet they can be totally interchangeable. STRONG is beautiful. in and of itself. and there are many, many different variations of strong.
whenever we go to these things, the first thing that you notice is all of the different body types. and of course the hard bodies stand out. the chics with the killer abs and shoulders, wearing the super cute sports bras. and you immediately think "i bet they are really good". because they LOOK really good. we still make that assumption, that looking good means being good. and clearly, you dont look like that without a serious amount of work - so its not a bad assumption. BUT. its not the whole picture. not even close. as my girl Krista said "we all look like that - underneath".
Beauty is strangely various. There is the beauty of light and joy and strength exulting; but there is also the beauty of shade, of sorrow and sadness, and of humility oppressed. ~Arnold Bennett
i think the challenging part is to just try not to judge. we are all there, doing our best. which is
awesome for everyone - and super encouraging. but i would be lying if we didnt find some perverse satisfaction in the "surprise" everyone gets from our performance. based on our appearance. because we are generally NOT the team you look at and think - oh, yeah - thats the team to beat. its more of a "good for them" kind of thing. which is fine. mostly. it motivates me, anyway. because i know we dont LOOK like the team that puts in hours and hours at the gym. even tho we do. we look like the team that eats pizza and drinks beer. because we do that too.

So long as we are in conflict with our body, we cannot find peace of mind. ~Georg Feuerstein
ive shared this somewhat silly goal with my gym fam. i want to go to flex on the mall next year and feel totally comfortable working out in my sports bra. because its about a thousand degrees on the mall every year. but i never feel like i can. because, again, the chics in the super cute sports bras are RIPPED. and its intimidating. this year, i want to feel like i can. not because i am ripped up (even tho if the magic wish fairy granted that, id be psyched), but because i dont care that im NOT. i want to mentally get to the place where it does not matter at all if i am being judged for what i look like. i want it to not matter to ME that i may not look the part, but that i can feel comfortable in my skin anyway. i dont want it to be more important that i LOOK fit. but that i AM fit.
goals, people. we all need goals :)
People who love to eat are always the best people. ~Julia Child