07/18/2025
There was a time in my life where all I wanted to do was change my body - basically my entire 20s. I would work out to burn calories and attempt to lose weight even though it never worked. I didn’t realize my body wanted to be at the weight I am at now. For 20 years I have been at the same weight (minus pregnancy and postpartum. I guess for some reason my worth was based on how I looked - and not to mention I worked in the nutrition and fitness field where there was this unspoken expectation that you must “look the part” to be a trainer or a dietitian.
Regardless, once I hit 30 I thought, ok you can spend another decade hating your body and trying to manipulate it, or just accept it. I went with the latter. I quit caring about calorie burning and losing weight. This was right around the time I started training for ultramarathons. I realized I had to fuel to be able to run for 5, 10, 15, 20 hours at a time. I had to accept that this is what I would look like because to me I cared about performance. I realized I was actually decent and that was the motivation to fuel and train right and take care of my body - I wanted to win races!
And just like that, the stress around body image and weight loss and all the other issues went away. I never have had an eating disorder or disordered eating but spent a lot of time disliking my body - something I’m not proud of. But now, 14 years later, I’m so glad I went down this path and discovered ultra running. I run because I love to see what my body can do, not because I want to change it or because I hate it. Plus I also run because I truly enjoy it!
So whether it’s running, biking, hiking, strength training, or any other movement, just find something you enjoy and make sure you move and exercise because you want to, not because you feel like you have to! So many of my clients who use exercise for weight loss alone never stick with it. Why? Because the only purpose is weight loss and that’s not enough to sustain the want to do it.
