I am a Meme slacker and rule-breaker. My apologies. But this one from Ebeth (thanks for thinking of me!) was intriguing to a bibliophile like myself. Too bad I’m not reading something really profound like St. Augustine’s Confessions like I and surely most moms of young kids, of course, usually do.
I’m juggling several books right now, but I decided to feature a book that’s on my nightstand that I actually first read in college and have revisited several times since. It’s Making Peace with Food by Susan Kano and out of the slew of books on eating disorders and body image I’ve read I found it to be one of the most helpful.
Now without further ado, I’m supposed to turn to page 56 and write down the fifth sentence as well as a few sentences following it, so here goes:
“You can decide when to exercise in advance, put that time aside in your schedule, and avoid constantly asking yourself, ‘Shall I exercise today or not?’
If you stop exercising for a long period of time, there is no need to feel guilty. It happens to everyone, and feeling bad about it is unproductive. Remember that you are still the same person you were while exercising – lack of exercise has made you less fit, not less worthy. Just as eating poorly does not make you a ‘bad’ person. Ideally, you should handle it in the same way most people who love to be active handle it: mildly regret that you haven’t been enjoying the fun and mental relaxation you had been enjoying and go back to it as soon as you can.”
Now I’m going to cheat and include a passage I highlighted way down on this page just because it’s something competitive, little me needs to be reminded of (yes, I admit I have been that crazy preggo lady on the elliptical trainer at the gym who’s racing the dude in the spandex shorts next to me to see who can pump their arms and move their legs the fastest):
“Do not fall into the trap of pushing yourself so hard that you push yourself away from the fun of exercise.”
Just in case you’re wondering: Maniacal elliptical training doesn’t really fall into the fun category.
I shared this post over at In God’s Image, too since it speaks directly to the blog’s body image theme.
That little paragraph was just the encouragement I needed this morning. Having just had a baby, and still dealing with sleepless nights… I’ve been doing a fair share of beating myself up over not exercising. Thanks so much for sharing a timely word!