To be Healthy and Happy or to be Skinny and Miserable?

         As I watch the world around me continue to move forward I hear more and more about eating habits, healthy eating to be skinner,  3 week challenges, weight watchers, not eating a french fry because one will make you unhealthy, etc.  It's come to the point I think I talk about health food, eating habits, and being skinny at least 2 times a day in various conversations. Women, when do we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH?   When did we stop talking about politics, animal cruelty, volunteer work, etc. and start talking about how shitty we feel because we ate a carbohydrate.

I want you to really access the next two situations I am about to pose:
 
       Woman 1 is your best friend and is super fit and active.  When you go out, she won't eat and if she does she will complain about it all night and be unhappy.  She will have what's seemingly a good time but you know what she thinking--"Did I eat that?" "Do I look bloated now?" "Am I still pretty?".  Her confidence is shotty at best and it is clear in her interactions with others.  Her constant worry is about how much she will need to workout to fix this "terrible night of eating (one french fry)". You also can feel her judging your meal selection, which can make you question your own confidence. 

      Woman 2 is also your best friend.  She is fit and healthy, but not "skinny".  She's always up for a good time, enjoys going out and having fun, but above all is confident.  People are drawn to her because you can tell she is confident and doesn't really worry about what you think. She works out 6 days a week as well, but does not stress if she misses a workout or eats a cheeseburger on Thursday.  She's the life of the party and you yourself even enjoy her personality.

       Can you compare any of those two people to people in your life?  The problem is....It's a constant battle between exercise and food and connecting those two things solely to a woman's happiness and self worth.  Remember a long time ago we talked about how much emphasis we put on the 3 digits that define our weight?  It's not like those 3 little numbers are the Scarlett Letter.  You don't have to announce it to the world and wear it in red on your t-shirt everyday.  So, why do we make it our priority?  When did happy and healthy slip by the wayside and become replaced by skinny and complacent.

    I mentioned how I get caught in these fitness/healthy food conversations at least twice a day. It's because people know I do Crossfit (http://crossfitsolstice.com/) and this is what they think we look like:

When really, we look like this:

Are all sets of  the women beautiful? Absolutely, sexiness comes from confidence not your pants size.

Camile LeBlank just facebook posted how she does eat carbs--and she eats two cheat meals a week, or more if she's hungry!!

Look at her, she's beautiful---because she is confident and she knows she can.  With or without carbs or cheat meals she'd still be pretty. 

      The moral of my story is, love yourself first.  Be confident, be healthy, be happy.  Don't stress the small stuff. Life is given to us a finite amount of time--we don't know when our time runs out.  You want to eat a cheeseburger after your selected workout, eat it.  Certainly don't eat it everyday but, last time I watched the news there was no breaking news story where: " Healthy Woman dies after eating first cheeseburger ever".

Love yourself girl, or nobody will.