You Were Born this Way
Alright….
Well I haven’t really posted anything for awhile and there is this constant topic that has been appearing on facebook, the songs that I hear on the radio, and something I hear everyday being in a weight room.

Being comfortable with the way you look is very important to women and let’s face it to men as well. The way we “think” we should look is often shaped by media, fashion, sports, our friends, or by a role model. I have always been “short” and built. Ever since I was young I was always the little girl that had muscles. Going through middle school and high school I can remember wanting to be thin and hating the fact that I had bigger legs then all of the other girls. But once I got into college something clicked in my head. I embrace my strong muscular legs because I knew that gave me the vertical jump that a lot of the other girls were lacking. Now that I am a competitive crossfitter and Olympic lifter my whole self image has change COMPLETELY!

This last couple of months I have been lifting A LOT MORE WEIGHT and squatting everyday or every other day! Many of my friends have heard me talking about this lately! Let’s get this straight…I’m not complaining because I have gain confidence with my lifts because I am a lot stronger and achieving lifts I never thought about achieving, but lifting at a higher percentage and squatting on a daily basis can put some muscle on a girl, about 9lbs to be exact. When first getting on the scale I would think HOLY SHIT..I WEIGH WHAT???? Now, I know muscle and water weigh more than fat and I with my education background I know what is happening to my body, but a girl can get stuck on a number. Jeans are nearly impossible to find for an athletic girl like myself, I either have to go up a size and get the waist taken in or just hope my jeans will stretch in the quadriceps area and don’t even get me started on sports bars! Anyways, what I am trying to get at is that women have a misconception about what we are suppose to look like. Obviously, everyone has a goal of what they “want” to look like, but what I want to look like has change COMPLETELY!!!!

Before I started crossfit and competitively Olympic lifting I would describe myself as a skinny muscular girl. What do I mean by this? I was athletic, was doing sports specific lifts, but I was never built like I am now. After the first six months of crossfit I had dropped about 6 pounds, starting to see definition I never saw before, and for the first time in my life became comfortable with my body. The further I got into crossfit the stronger I got. My body has drastically changed from the time I first started crossfit, oly-lifting, and having a paleo diet.

I think the best phrase I have heard about being both strong and beautiful is said by Rebecca Voigt when she came up with the phrase, “strong is beautiful.” What I think is beautiful is a strong and confident women. And that is what crossfit and Olympic lifting have helped me to become. I no longer want to look frail and thin, but instead I am more concerned about how strong I feel and if I have gain muscle! As my friend Kim Wong says,“Before crossfit, I was skinny... now, I’m getting damn beefy... who wouldn't want that?”

Don’t get me wrong I’m still human and there are days were I am not comfortable with my body and I feel self conscious. But what I have come to find is that with how strong I become physically the strength of my self-image becomes stronger as well. With putting 9lbs of muscle on because of my weight training I at first was pissed because of the number I saw on the scale, but when sitting down and really thinking about it I thought to myself, “I love this feeling of being strong and also the feeling I get when I complete a lift or movement because of my strength gain!”Instead of being mad of gaining weight..I get pissed when I drop weight! Ha..imagine that! This feeling of being comfortable with myself did not happen overnight and it is an ongoing journey, but boy do I have the confidence in my image I only dreamt about before starting crossfit and Olympic lifting.

So what is the point of this post! Well, first I would like to tell all of you reading this that you are all beautiful in your own individual ways. Whither you got a ghetto booty, strong muscular legs, your short or tall, you have big traps, your calves are muscular, you can’t fit into jeans because of your legs, your sport bars are tight because of your strong and defined back, or whatever quality you may feel self conscious about you are ALL STRONG AND BEAUTIFUL. Embrace your muscles and your differences because everyone has something different to offer this world.