Try harder!

The other night I went to my weekly running group and joined two girls I hadn’t run with before on a speedy six mile route.  They are younger than me, super sweet, and honestly pretty beautiful.

We were chatting about running, eating and our bodies.  I mentioned that I ran a marathon for the first time this past summer and timed it perfectly a month before my wedding as an added way to get fit before the nuptials.  Then I confessed that I ate well, ran hard and didn’t lose any weight.  They sighed and said they had just been talking about how despite running more mileage, they don’t lose weight and are constantly hungry.

I then mentioned that despite that, when I got our wedding pictures back I was pleased to see that I looked pretty good.  One of the girls exclaimed, “That happens to me all the time.  I think I need to lose weight and then I see a picture from a few weeks ago and think about how cute I looked then.”  She paused for a moment and then said, “Why do we do that to ourselves?  We are all so beautiful.  We work so hard to be kind to others, but why can’t we be like that to our own self?!”

Ding Ding Ding (that was the light bulb in my head flashing on).  I work with young children every day and I spend all my time teaching them how to treat others as we want to be treated.  But wait a second, why aren’t we treating ourselves as we want to be treated.

The other Golden Rule.

The fact is, I ate well, I trained hard and I am a fit, happy woman.  I must have been doing something right, I qualified for Boston and walked away still smiling.

So today I have a challenge for anyone who reads this.  Take a second or a minute, or however long it takes to find it and say one nice thing about yourself.  I am going to make the challenge harder too, I know you are all great people on the inside.  Make yourself find one thing you really like about your outer self.  If you are feeling brave, go ahead and leave a comment about it.

I will start.  My name is Sarah.  I was a professional figure skater for most of my life.  Figure skating builds some pretty serious calf and quad muscles.  I always complain about how I wish my legs would thin out, but I like that my legs are fit, strong, and muscular.  They have taken me to some awesome places and for that I am grateful.

Now it is up to you.  Show yourself some love.  If you don’t leave a comment, say it to yourself.  Even better, spend your run today talking to yourself about as many awesome things about you as possible.