Evolution

When you think of how easy it is for us, as adults, to fall into this fantasy trap, you can imagine how pre-teens and teens become consumed with “perfecting” themselves. In most cultures, these standards are imposed by the media and commercial outsiders who stand to profit from it. I admire Dove for trying to correct this, even if they still promote themselves as selling “beauty” products.

On a parellel note, I have to remind myself that in the gym I should not compare my performance to others. I should focus on my personal goals and let go of the competitiveness. It is a mental challenge that I frequently forget. You would think I would have matured past that point by now.

I didn’t really say enough earlier, so I’m revisiting. Many thoughts to get out:

The real shame here is how our perception of beauty is based on these photo-shopped, heavily produced images that have no true existence in reality.

The real shame is that athletic, fit, healthy women are made to feel unattractive or “big” or like they “look like a man,” all because of what we see in magazines or on TV that is pegged by society as “beautiful”; where there is no place for anything but thin, tall, leggy, and ‘flawless’ women with perfect skin and bodies and no muscle mass- who, in reality, need to eat a sandwich and start lifting some weights!

The real shame is that we take images that are not at all real and compare ourselves to them in the mirror everyday, when truly, we’d all looked that way if we were airbrushed or stretched in a photo or didn’t eat or were constantly loaded with make-up and spray tans.

It’s all what media WANTS us to perceive as beauty. But, it’s not real. It’s just not. CrossFit girls- THEY ARE REAL. They are strong, beautiful, and fit and all of those things completely devoid of any help from teams of folks doing our hair, our make-up, and photo-shopping our faces and bodies.

Point is- we need more real and more positive in our lives in so many ways. Let’s try blogging on Neron’s “sunny side of life” every now and again. In the end, (and well represented in the video) perception isn’t everything. As a matter of fact, there are people on this blog that constantly comment negatively or with complaints out the wazoo. They are perceived as unhappy and malcontent. In all actuality, they are probably very nice and are, from what I’ve seen, decent athletes, as well. But, you would never know it based on this blog. Much like we never really know if someone in a magazine or on tv is truly beautiful or not. We have to rethink our reality and get it together here, folks. We can certainly change for the better our own perceptions, and very much effect others’ perceptions, as well. But, only if we start living (and blogging) more positively.

Keep posts like this coming, CFD. Sometimes, we need to be reminded that all of our ‘imperfections’ are just what make us who we are and aren’t really that at all…they are what makes us each beautiful and REAL in our own way.

Unrelated to this post, but also very interesting:

http://shareitfitness.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/the-worst-beverages-in-america/

See the sugar equivalent of many popular drinks in picture format (the pics really bring it home).

For example, Starbucks Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha with Whipped Cream (venti, 20 fl oz) = 8½ scoops Edy’s Slow Churned Rich and Creamy Coffee Ice Cream

I needed to see that post. . . especially today. Found myself glaring in the mirror at all of the imperfections and wondering what if………………