Grasping Adaptation and Unconditional Love For Your Body

Recently had a conversation with someone about the miracle that is our body. That we could have a human body reach in excess of 500 pounds and their body is doing what? It's fighting, it's fighting to keep the bodily systems working efficiently. Your body is fighting for your survival even if you puff on 5 packs of Camels a day or you drink Red Bull in place of water every day. Your body always gives you 100% of what its abilities are. Despite all the work we put into torturing it with toxins and chemically created food and holding it down with negative self talk; despite all that, our bodies fight to the death.

Body Types of Athletes

Do you wonder why your body is carrying  extra weight? Why you nearly collapsed after running a 5K three months ago but now you can run a half marathon and still talk in full sentences afterward? Ever curious why after you got stronger, your appetite went out the roof? Or, this is one I figured out recently - why your thighs grew when you started lifting heavy weights. ((oh, what girl doesn't want the quads of a man?)) Here's the answer. We are all creatures of change, of progress...of...wait for it... adaptation. So the answer to the  questions is as simple as understanding that your body is a mechanism to help you accomplish all the things you ask of it. Repeat after me: MY BODY IS NOT AN ENEMY.

If you have seen elite Crossfitters at all, you might notice that the Crossfitter's bodies are beginning to look the same - they have bodies that adapted to lifting heavy things and to working out multiple times a day at high intensities. Want to know what that looks like?  It looks like big muscles, low fat storage and a body that functions mechanically with ease.

 

Matt Chan, Rich Froning and Jason Kalipa, not couch body types

Do you ask your body to run fast regularly? Do you ask it to climb up a 20-foot rope? Do you ask your body to do two Tough Mudders in one weekend? Do you teach it how to lay down on the couch and watch Walking Dead? Our bodies only want to help. Our body is our ally when we want to try a new skill, it's there to be taught. And what do we do for our body in return? Do we stand in front of the mirror like a total asshole and put it down for the way it looks? Totally guilty. If I was my body, I would punch me in the face.

You want a killer, fit physique to make fitness models drool? Then you can't get that way with dreams and couch-body activities. So you want a fit, slim body that can climb mountain sides? Your body is waiting for you to act that way. Your body is ready on a demand with lightening speed to begin the adaptation process. You say you want a strong body that can pick up heavy things and sprint like a damn tiger, then practice lifting heavy and sprinting. Your body is ready when you are. Vamos.

A quick word regarding bodily self-love...
And maybe you are almost ready for that next step but you are looking for more ways to appreciate the miracle of your body? I can think of one thing right away that I am appreciative to my body for.

1. My body allows me to feel the warmth of a tight hug - that's one of the best feelings in the world
   
   
   
   LOVE YOUR BODY CHALLENGE HERE