My daughter started kindergarten this week. If you haven’t met her, she’s one of the kindest hearted, sweetest, smart, funny, and loving little girls in the world. I love her with all my heart. Notice in my description of her, I didn’t write beautiful, although I think she is for sure. The reason why is this….
I don’t want her to define herself by her outwardly appearance. I own a gym, and sure looking good is a great deal about why we do what we do, but it certainly isn’t the whole picture.
I hate that our society puts so much pressure on little girls and their appearance.
My daughter is 5 years old, and she already asks me if she looks cute in our her outfit. If her purse is cute, if her clothes are cute. Many people think it’s endearing, and I fall into the trap sometimes, but I’m heartbroken by what she said to me her third day of kindergarten.
While giving her a bath, she told me that she wanted to be skinny and complained about her legs. I asked her where she heard that word from, and she recanted and said she didn’t know, but my heart broke for her that night.
The sad thing is, she doesn’t know what it means yet, but she will soon. Soon the pressures will be great for her to be skinny, pretty, etc.
I remember when I was in elementary school, by 1st grade I had gained a ton of weight. The kids started calling me jelly rolls, and by 6th grade I put a loaded gun to my head to end it all because I hated my appearance so much, I was pretty sure nobody would ever love me.
My heart is broken for her, because I know how hard it’s going to be, and it’s harder now then when I was a kid. The pressures are greater, and the methods are more extreme.
It’s a shame that we don’t focus more on loving people for who they are. My focus here is about creating an environment that will help people achieve their goals, but we focus on health more then looks. When the health parameters fall into place, the looks will fall into place. It’s important to love the idea of health, be healthy, focus on healthy habits and you’ll progress towards your goals.
In the meantime, work on being happy with who you are. Society puts enough pressure on us to be something we’re not, and when you see a little girl compliment her on how smart she is, how sweet and loving she is. Ask her what her favorite book to read is. 5 year olds don’t need to worry about being skinny.
August 20th, 2015 WOD
Levels Testing
Met Con:
“Fran”
21-15-9
Thrusters
Pull Ups
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