Bodycology

Sometimes I feel as though I have no control over my body, how I look, the shape that I have taken, my sagging and cellulite, my freckles and sun spots, the wrinkles and stretch marks.

How silly of me.  Sometimes I need someone to remind me that there is only one person who has control over me and my body and that person is ME.  I am the person who chooses what food and nutrition to put into my body and ultimately I decide how much I will exercise--or not.

Why those facts escape me is confusing.  Perhaps it is easier to feel that things are beyond our control, because then we don't have to take responsibility for ourselves.  I condone my physical limitations and unhealthy lifestyle by turning to the mindset of:  I can't control how my body will look so I may as well give up.

What I am constantly realizing and being reminded of is the fact that 

A) our bodies are evolving mechanisms.   They give so much to us, especially with regards to the fact that our two legs support us, our muscles move our limbs, the very act of balancing upright causes wear and tear on our frame, especially with extra weight bogging us down.  We owe it to ourselves to treat our bodies kindly and with respect, which includes living healthily, body AND spirit.

B) my body and I are in this for life.  Matt said something that I loved a few months ago, along the lines of,  "You have to love your body...you are in a partnership with it!"  How true and poetic!  If I want a long, healthy and happy life, I need to treat my body with care and tenderness. 

In the end I think us fatter people get too bogged down by preconceived notions of what beauty is.  We all have to look like Angelina and Brad, Demi and Ashton, Will and Jada.  No, no...who I have to look like is Marcia and the best Marcia I can be!  I feel as though I wasted so much time when I was an insecure teenager, uncertain about my body and looks... Precious time I can never recover.  

Life is too short trying to live looking like people we are not.  What I am focusing in the next couple months is eating healthier, exercising every other day and respecting my physical entity.  My dad always quoted the Bible verse to us along the lines of your body being a temple.  Here is the broken down version:

"You realize, don't you, that you are the temple of God, and God Himself is present in you?  No one will get by with vandalizing God's temple, you can be sure of that.  God's temple is sacred--and you, remember, are the temple." (1 Cor 3:16-17)

You may not necessarily respect, enjoy or understand the Bible, but I feel the strength behind these words.  We are more than flesh, skin and bones.   Love and honour our bodies, feed our souls.  My challenge  to you:  when have you last fed your soul?