{"id":1870,"date":"2013-05-23T08:00:43","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T12:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/?p=1870"},"modified":"2013-05-21T15:18:57","modified_gmt":"2013-05-21T19:18:57","slug":"building-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/23\/building-confidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"medium_177110753\"<\/a>photo credit: rellim<\/a> via photopin<\/a> cc<\/a><\/p>\n

I have to be honest, I’ve never been super proud of my body.\u00a0 I mean, it does what it’s supposed to, but since childhood, I (like every other woman) have been bombarded by images of stereotypical beauty, and I don’t fall into that stereotype.<\/p>\n

(Though I do have fabulous hair.)<\/p>\n

As I got older, I grew to accept my body for what it is. I’ll never be thin – I’m not designed that way.\u00a0 And that’s okay.\u00a0 But I still felt the need to hide my body most of the time.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, I was standing in my bathing suit chatting with a couple of people and it wasn’t until later that I realized what I had done.\u00a0 I was wearing a bathing suit.\u00a0\u00a0 One designed for lap swimming, not for maximum attractiveness.\u00a0 And I was nonchalantly standing around talking, as if nothing was wrong.<\/p>\n

Because nothing was wrong.\u00a0 I wasn’t worried about how I looked.\u00a0 Because swimming isn’t about how my body looks, it’s about what it does.\u00a0 And I’m learning that with all the sports I’ve picked up.<\/p>\n

With running, I’ve been able to somewhat hide my body (though pictures tell me I’m not actually doing a very good job of that – water belts do nothing for the belly roll).\u00a0 But biking and swimming make that a bit harder.\u00a0 Triathlon kits are not made to be flattering.\u00a0 They are made to be functional.\u00a0 They fit tightly because they have to.\u00a0 Otherwise, I would have clothing flapping around as I tried to swim and bike.\u00a0 Not good for anyone.<\/p>\n

And you know what?\u00a0 I don’t care.\u00a0 I mean, sure, I would like to get rid of this belly fat.\u00a0 It’s unhealthy and I would like to get back into my cute clothes.\u00a0 Also, weight-loss will likely lead to faster speeds when running\/biking\/swimming.\u00a0 But my body doesn’t bother me like it used to.<\/p>\n

My thighs are big.\u00a0 They’re also super muscular.\u00a0 Awesomely so.\u00a0 Do clothes then fit weird?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 But I don’t care.\u00a0 My body has gotten me across numerous finish lines, races I wasn’t so sure I would be able to finish.<\/p>\n

All this training has taught me that it’s not about how my body looks, it’s how it works.\u00a0 And while I need to eat better to keep it working properly, it’s about being healthy and being strong.\u00a0 Not worrying about what other people think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

photo credit: rellim via photopin cc I have to be honest, I’ve never been super proud of my body.\u00a0 I mean, it does what it’s supposed to, but since childhood, I (like every other woman) have been bombarded by images of stereotypical beauty, and I don’t fall into that stereotype. (Though I do have fabulous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nBuilding Confidence - Elbowglitter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/23\/building-confidence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Building Confidence - Elbowglitter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"photo credit: rellim via photopin cc I have to be honest, I’ve never been super proud of my body.\u00a0 I mean, it does what it’s supposed to, but since childhood, I (like every other woman) have been bombarded by images of stereotypical beauty, and I don’t fall into that stereotype. 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