A Detour From The Skinny Goal (guest post).

by

Im honored to have Mary‘s musings up in herre today.

Ive met her in person and, believe me, she is precisely as kickass in person as she comes across on her blog.

Please to enjoy.

Once upon a time I lived in a dark and scary place called morbid obesity. I was unhappy and trapped and wanted out of my prison more than anything! So I embarked on a journey in order to reach the land of the skinny, the place I had always dreamed of while being locked up in my “fat prison.”

The journey was long and tough. My goal was to lose weight and I fought many battles in that noble effort, winning some and losing others. I fought and I fought, hoping to one day reach skinny. I knew that once I was skinny doors would open and my life would be everything I ever wished it would be.

Along my journey I met many characters. Some helped me and some hindered me. Some led me astray and wasted my time as I chased down dreams I thought would bring me closer to the land of the skinny, where they ate yet never gained and everyone could wear skinny jeans.

One character in my journey acted a little different than the rest. She handed out advice and encouragement plenty. She had muscles and tattoos and crazy rhyming skills too. She said things like she hoped I reached skinny, but got strong too.

Wait what? Strong? Huh?

That wasn’t what I wanted, not even close to what I needed! What was strong when I could be SKINNY? Was she kidding? Was I to abandon my weight loss dreams to actually BUILD muscle on my body?

I’d heard the rumors and read a few things, okay I knew it – building muscle was good for you. It even helped you lose weight faster. But I still couldn’t stomach doing the things to gain more body weight. So I inconsistently and half-heartedly played with weights to help me along, all the while still worshiping the almighty cardio that would lead me to skinny.

After a while I found myself lifting weights more frequently. And the muscles started building themselves without me trying. Then one day I realized … I liked it.

I realized I liked building muscles. I liked lifting heavier weights. I liked pushing my muscles to do things that couldn’t do before. I liked being STRONG more than I wanted to be skinny.

I realized being strong was cooler than being skinny, because strong girls could do anything they wanted.

I realized being strong would pay off in more ways than being skinny would, like helping me live better longer instead of becoming weak and frail.

I realized being strong has many benefits, like lifting things instead of being forced to ask for help.

I realized instead of trying to be skinny, I wanted to be strong.

So my realizations changed the destination of my journey. I’m still running from the dark and scary land I once lived in, and vow never to return there. But my destination is now land of the strong instead of the world of the skinny. And I’m quite happy about that.

Mary writes a healthy weight loss blog where she still talks about losing weight, but really she just wants to build muscles to stay strong and healthy.

Want some Miz on yer Friday? Im kicking it OLD SKOOL with Seth. Join us?

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Comments

  4. See that! I knew that Mary character was a supah! She’s such a kickin’ azz dahhh-ling.

    As for dark and scary, I hear my child moaning-whining beneath the covers inside her cavern cave crib.

    Please. Send. Help.

  6. strength rules! i wanna be able to open my own water bottle instead of looking around for help after trying and failing. i seriously thought i was going to have to ask someone at the gym to open it for me the other day. thanks for a great post mary.

  9. Amen, sister!

    I’m always trying to get the skinny chicks off the treadmills and into bootcamp. You can see the terror in their eyes; whether they’re afraid of failure or success, I’m never quite sure.

  10. Strong is always better than skinny! I saw that first hand recently when I did a 5K. The super skinny girl who LOOKED really fit completely fell apart where the 50 something round woman finished ahead of many of us – including me!

  15. Cute story, I love it! I know when I first started I just wanted to be thin (scratch that, not as fat). Now, while I am taking very good care not to GAIN, the number I worry about decreasing is my running pace, not the scale. And it’s a much happier place for me to be.

  17. wow, what a fabulous post. I loved it.

    I also lived in that dark place and wanted to be skinny- I also decided that I wanted to be strong and hit the weights hard. Ironically, the weights helped me to shift some weight and I love love love the way it makes me feel. I have blogged and guest posted about it about 239 times but strength training has totally changed my life. Thanks for the guestie!

  20. Im such a child but to know/read/tweet with/ANYTHING with Mary is to know that today is a bigbig day for her.

    and kepa.

    and Im so excited 🙂

  22. This is GREAT!!!!
    I think there are so many hidden agendas in a society that wants to keep women skinny, undernourished, and weak. I say we ditch the fad diets and pick up the weights!

  25. All I know is, when I was wrecking my metabolism on an 800-calorie-a-day diet to stay under 138 pounds because my job depended on it, I wasn’t nearly as strong and healthy as I am at 165. I couldn’t run around the block without walking then. I’m doing my third 5K this weekend and looking for a 10K to enter now.

    Everything I do with what I eat and how I move, I do so I can run longer and faster, not to lose weight because some number on a chart says I’m fat. If in the course of getting stronger and faster I lose weight, great. If not, oh well.

  26. Weird. I just wrote a blog post today about this same subject.

    Geez, not only do we have the same name, we’re starting to think alike 🙂

  29. I am SO on the strong wagon as well. I am 42 and the first time I ever did a bench press in my whole life was last month. I think of all the time I wasted doing aerobics in the 80s…..doing universal machines in the 90s….then not doing too much of anything until about a year ago. I love to get a little stronger each week. I love the cause and effect of it….lift heavy…get stronger…what a cool concept! 🙂

  31. Strong trumps skinny every time! I love how Merry (Mary?) discovered that it’s more about the journey than the destination – something I have to remind myself of often!

  32. Cute post. I am skinny already but I have been trying to get stronger. One reason (besides it being fun) that I go to the gym! I’m already stronger than people think, because they try to not let me carry heavy stuff and I brush them off and do it anyways. 🙂

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