Fitting In

Melissa at http://idontneedexcuses.blogspot.com/ wrote a blog about fitting in as a fit mom. Go check it out. It got me fired up!

My response to her post is this;

“I’m over here!” (waving my hand) “Here I am!” I am so with you on this. I am a mom, 38 yo, like to stay active and don’t want to eat junk for every meal (although once in a while a piece of birthday cake or a beer on a holiday, etc seems like a good idea to me). Yet I don’t have a love for competing and I don’t have the desire to put in the time, energy, $ and focus for competing (though I don’t have anything against the women that do.) I feel the same way about training and running a marathon. I don’t want to put the time/effort into doing that either. Ha! ( now a half marathon – maybe). Muslfetish is so right (It has to be something you enjoy and enjoy the process/journey).

Anyway, I get so exasperated and just plain disgusted sometimes, at the negative attitudes of mothers who do not even have the smallest, microscopic level of value for eating healthy and/or being active. I also know about the snide remarks and looks. Apparently it is not politically correct to say anything about being overweight or the overweight’s choice of food, but if you have a BMI of less than 25, apparently one can let the comments fly! Feel free to comment away about what the normal weight person is eating or not eating, doing or not doing. And if you’re extra lean, watch out! It’s even worse. I’m not even that “lean.” My measured bodyfat is around 24 to 26 % but I am short and have naturally “small bones” and not a lot of muscle so I “look” very lean. But I know better. My goal is 20% BF. A reasonable healthy goal but I get the “Why do you want to lose any weight?” comments all the time.

The other thing that perplexes (and sometimes infuriates me) is seeing all the parents out there going to great lengths to spend the $ and the time to put their kids in sports BUT totally neglecting their health. It’s baseball season time now and parents somehow manage to religiously take their kids to practice no matter what. The parents will sit through 2 hour practices, and 3 or 4-hour games, etc. But will refuse to invest 1 hour in their day to keep themselves healthy. Just think what they could accomplish if they put half of that dedication into an exercise plan for themselves. The funny thing is, kids (most anyway) are naturally active when given the opportunity! I watch this all the time. Gather some people together for a meal, reunion, picnic, whatever. How many times do you see the kids break out of the formal sit-down thing and just start running around and/or playing. The parent/adults are the ones that “need” the structured exercise/sports things more than the kids. There is no balance. Everything is very kid-focused. And no, I’m not against kids sports. My kids are in them. But you know what? During their soccer practice last fall, I took many walks around their practice field during practice. I was the only mother who did this, although I did see one man doing some walking.

I don’t have an easy answer for Melissa but I so totally get what she is saying and it got me fired up!