Fit for WHAT?
How often have you judged someone as "fit" based on the way they look?
One of my all time favorite images is one my husband uses in his courses. In the picture there are ten olympic athletes standing side by side all wearing black, skin bearing suits. They range in size from 6ish feet tall to 4ish feet tall. They are lean, some "look" obese and they are all "fit". They are OLYMPIC ATHLETES! They are "fit" for their sport, every thing from basketball to horseback riding. This also reminds me of the quote: "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
And I DO mean to say; "everybody is fit for something". You might be fit for running marathons, you could be fit enough to swim half a mile, maybe you are fit enough to climb the stairs at your house, it's even possible that you are fit for sitting on your butt watching TV.
My point is that there is a spectrum and we are all on the spectrum SOMEWHERE. If you judge a shot putter by her ability to long jump she will spend her life believing she is not fit.
In my work with Precision Nutrition my clients have a lesson where they give themselves a percentage on a scale from 0%-100% (healthy). And guess what 0% is...
go ahead...
guess...
If you think 0% is being lazy and overweight, you are wrong.
Maybe 0% is battling disease? Nope, its not.
Then surely 0% is bedridden?
NO again.
0% is DEAD. Which means that anyone who is alive is fit for something.
I have lived in many bodies, I remember being 8 years old spindly and wiggly. I could run full speed to anywhere. When I was 12 my boobs seem to speak louder than me, but I still ran my way to a slew of ribbons at the state track meet. When I moved to NC my diet changed and my mom came to see me, "you are fat!" She is horrified that she said it, but it was true, I had gained probably 15 pounds and comparatively I was fat. My 15 pounds extra danced 5 days a week and I never broke a toe standing in my toe shoes. In my 20's I couldn't eat enough to maintain weight, dancing with a professional dance company and eating on a meager wage. After my second baby I was skinny and could barely walk without crying from chronic pubic symphysis PAIN.
“Fit for childbirth
I want us to collectively STOP judging fitness on what people look like.
"She is so fit, look at her abs."
"He must be really fit with shoulders like that."
"Look at how fit you look."
“Fit” for cleaning? (I have no clue what I am doing!)
The fact of fitness is that we have to train our bodies to do things we want to do. The reason the ten olympic athletes look so different (I'm not going to get into epigenetics) and yet are all "fit" is that they have trained for the elite level of what is required for their sport. The Gymnasts are muscle bound and agile due to specific training. The shot put throwers are HUGE, and they can move like a hummingbirds because they train to whip heavy shit around.
When we discover what we love to do with our bodies, we will become fit for that specific event because we will train for it. I am an obsessive adventure seeker (suburban mom style). I want to be able to surf, paddle, hike, ski, camp, run and climb on a moments notice. So my fitness routine involves moving in varied human patterns under load at different tempos.
“Fit” for mothering.
I want to free you from the tyranny of form. I want us to focus on what we can do in our bodies and why we are here on this planet in this body.
Do not accuse me of ignoring health as a factor in fitness. That is not what I am touching on in this rant. Although I also do not judge "health" based on what a person looks like, that is a whole other rant for another time.
I am also not saying that "you shouldn't care what you look like". If you are uncomfortable in your current form, I know that getting out there in the world and doing physical work that you love will not only change what your body looks and feels like it will also change your relationship with your body.
“Fit” for modeling.
I do this work because I love it. I actually love working out with people. I do. I love cooking nutrient dense food and eating. I really really do. And my physical form reflects that love. What I can not tolerate any longer is a system of oppression that guides us to only care that our bodies look a certain way.
I know so many incredible, force of nature human beings that live in the shadows because they unfairly judge their bodies. Let's stop thinking we are not "fit" because we don't look like the magazine cover (another rant for another day).
“Fit” for being BADASS!
Ask yourself what do I want to be fit for? What kind of trouble can I get into before I am dead? Who's ass do I need to kick? How am I going to blow my own damn socks off! When you figure it out, call me...I want to come with you.