All About the Bass

I have been hooked on “All About the Bass” by Meghan Trainor for about three weeks. It was my almost-nine-year old daughter who introduced me to this catchy song, and I recently watched the video (spoiler alert – see bottom of post). It wasn’t until last week (while getting back into my lifting program) that I finally heard the lyrics. I am terrible at hearing lyrics (terrible!). It has always been a struggle for me. I first fall in the love with the music, or beat, or harmony, or melody… or whatever. It is usually after a song captures me that I listen to what the message is.

This one… I like.

(explicit content ahead, including lyrics within the music video)

I sat my daughter down and we YouTubed the lyrics so we could read and listen at the same time. We pulled up the censored version and we both fell more in love with the message; we talked about embracing our bodies at any size and that what I do daily in the arenas of nutrition and exercise is NOT about how my body looks, but how my body feels and what my body is capable of doing.

I have needed to be cautious about my message to my daughter about my focus on activity, calories, the ‘good’ vs. ‘bad’ debate about food; you get what I mean. I believe that our relationship with our bodies is important, and learning to accept and love all of us is an important part of anyone looking to start their own weight loss journey.

I have come to realize, I have failed at part of this.

Is not talking about something just as bad as talking at super great lengths about it? I have never complained about my body – ever. This is something I recently realized about myself. Maybe my toes – one thing I would change are my toes. But other than that, I have never complained about the size or shape of my body, whether now or before I started to get healthy. I guess part or all of me realized no one got me to where I was but me – so why outwardly complain about something I was ultimately responsible for. I guess it’s like going around complaining about the terrible dye job you did to yourself – complain, sure, but really, it’s you that got you there, so what’s the use?

I do, however, think having a positive internal dialogue about our bodies is a very important thing to do. And for me, it has been a recognition that I have left my legs out of the love affair mix for far too long. I think it’s about time I invite them in. If I sit and dissect why I don’t absolutely love them, it’s all lame-o reasons. But, in all honesty, while I continue to be the best version of me, I still have not openly said I LOVE YOU, LEGS, because deep down inside, I ignore them. Now, I use to run regularly, I do lower body strength training twice a week, with a big focus on my legs, but I hide them like the third nipple on Marky Mark (it’s true).

I train with capris on so I rarely need to see or acknowledge them. When I look in the mirror, it’s from the mid-hip up, and I don’t really look at myself in my full-length mirror.

Many of you may be saying, “Who cares? There’s always something we don’t LOVE about ourselves.”

Sure – but I think in the process of transformation, when we say you need to do this for you and you need to love yourself first before change can happen, I really think it needs to be all of you; dimply legs and all!

I trained today pantless. Yes, pantless. It was extremely hard to do. I don’t do a lot of sitting when I train so I was forced in the privacy of my basement, to stare at my lovely lady logs and see what they actually do when I’m lifting 50+ lbs over my head repeatedly or what happens when I pull the bar close to my heart on my bent over rows. I was humbled. I say this because naked is truth. Naked it nothing left. Naked is what we are when stripped down to the most vulnerable state of us. And while my thighs still touch a bit up top and the visible dimply skin is way more less than what is was, these will be my legs for the rest of my life.

barbie — I love both; I just relate a bit more to the Squat-Barbie!

I commended them for helping me carry both of my kids up our flight of stairs when those littles want to challenge me (almost 100 lbs combined now!); I thanked them for getting me through my client sessions and Boot Camp to help others get to their goals; I applauded them for not needing rest during a whole day of walking around enjoying life again. I love that I have calf muscles now and tiny ankles. I love the quad muscle that is there when I flex. Hell, I even love my saddle bags. These are all part of me and my past and my now and my future.

Have you fully embraced your body? Do you feel that not doing so is holding you back at all? The stand-naked-in-front-of-a-mirror thing is a wonderful thing to do, when ready. I encourage you to love yourself enough to love all of you. I can tell you one thing, these legs of mine will surely be getting the attention they have lacked for so many, many years and I kinda think the twerking thing is something I could master!