We think it’s time to change the narrative about fitness and our team is sharing their stories to help you change yours!
This is the story of Ruth, Who’s one of our Experience Coordinators.
“I wanted to share how a simple quote changed my perspective on my body and helped me set my mindset in a new direction to treat my body better!
I know I am a skinny mini and it seems as though I should have an easy time loving my body. But I’ve often been shamed for being underweight, told that being thin made me look sick and that my being small meant I was weak.
Having strangers tell you to eat more, or family constantly question if I am sick and forcing me to take extra food because I look too skinny made me very self conscious about my eating habits. I avoided exercise in fear that my body couldn’t handle it or worse – it would make me skinnier.
This shaped my self image for a long time and I believed I was too weak to try weight lifting and incapable of building muscle. I shied away from showing my body, feeling embarrassed that I have no body shape and am just skin and bones.
Over the years, things started to change. As body positivity messages became more common on my social media feed, I read experiences of people who learned to overcome body shaming and change the focus to taking care of their bodies instead of looking a certain way.
A quote that sparked a change in me was that “our bodies are our vehicles to life”. We have to take care of them so they can carry us through it.
I realized that my body should be moved and used for all that it is capable of.
Embracing this idea taught me to explore all the things my body can do! So to me, fitness means moving my body in all the ways that it can be moved.
Our bodies can twist, jump high or get low. They shimmy and shake. They can withstand extra weight, resistance and more!
One way I embody this is through Yoga. I find it so much fun to play around with different postures to test my flexibility, and have seen incredible progress throughout the years.
Whenever I try a new workout class or exercise I am reminded that my body is capable of so much.
FITNESS is knowing I have an amazing body, not because of how it looks but because of what it can do!“
