Summer Celebration

(This post appeared in the Strength Outside In Newsletter, May 30, 2017)

Memorial Day has passed. We are back at work with dreams of sun-drenched vacations dancing in our heads. It's been a rough few months since last November, and I think we deserve a special gift this year... a gift we can give ourselves without spending a dime.

I'm talking about a daily practice of enjoying our bodies for what they are and what they can do. No angst. No "how does my butt look in that photo?" No "I can't go to the pool because I don't want to put on a bathing suit." Can we have a go this year at having fun and not giving one little microscopic damn what strangers think of our bodies?

I, for one, will be working this summer on caring less, so much less, about cellulite and belly flab. And caring more about beach frisbee and sandpipers. First step? I am going to wear whatever makes me comfortable, whether that is a bikini, a one-piece, men's board shorts and a swim shirt, a sundress... or some combination of the above.

Enough. Life is too short for this. Your body is not the enemy. It's a quirky, magical, fantastic machine, and it makes you you. Please. Cut loose every bit of psychological energy you have ever wasted on picking your body apart, and put it back together in a wholistic, untethered appreciation for being alive. Free yourself to sit in the sand and build a ridiculously awful sand castle without a second thought about how you look.

Nobody who loves you cares about your cellulite, and you shouldn't either. If you are free of pain, celebrate. If you can run after your kids or take your dog for a walk, celebrate. If you have a day to spend with family or friends, doing nothing but enjoying sunshine and cocktails on a backyard deck, celebrate.

You all inspire me. Thank you for your daily comments and emails. You remind me how powerful and beautiful our bodies are... disabled, short, tall, chubby, slim, whatever. Every time I see you taking care of your bodies, freeing them and utilizing them instead of trying to strip them down, you make me stronger and more carefree, so thank you!

Here's to summer, and here's to you! And here's to our daily practice of having better things to do. 

Exercise Heals

As reported by NBC Nightly News, the Journal of the American Medical Association just confirmed what many cancer patients and survivors already knew, that exercise is the best cure for fatigue caused by cancer. 

The meta-analysis included 113 unique studies, covering 11,525 participants. Their results showed that "exercise and psychological interventions and the combination of both reduce cancer-related fatigue during and after cancer treatment... In contrast, pharmaceutical interventions do not improve cancer-related fatigue to the same magnitude."

Exercise heals. Our bodies are built to recover from moderate stressors. When we stress a muscle, we tear tiny muscle fibers, and they grow back stronger. When we challenge our heart and lungs, they recover more easily. When we conquer new challenges and bounce back effectively, we are able to set our sights higher and stretch our boundaries. 

This study is about cancer patients, but it holds true for all of us. If we move our bodies, we feel better, and when we feel better physically, life feels better overall. Simple as that. 

In the words of the doctor interviewed in the story, we "don't need to go run a marathon. This is about getting the public health recommendation of 150 minutes of exercise every week, and you can get that in multiple ways."

It's just a matter of getting our heart rates up for 25 minutes a day or one hour a couple of times a week. Walking, gardening, jogging, yoga, rollerskating, biking, lifting weights, dancing... options are endless. But the point is that using our bodies heals them. 

So what do you say we get out this weekend, and enjoy the fresh air and movement as much as we possibly can... to battle fatigue and depression and to improve sleep, appetite, and energy levels. Why not grab those benefits wherever we can find them?