On living your life

Maybe it’s because I’m getting my day started off on the wrong foot, trying desperately to deep breathe through the morning while talking to roadside assistance because I left my lights on and my car battery is dead, but considering the circumstances, I’m in a fairly decent mood. The point is, lately I’ve been absolutely bombarded by people around me trying to change the way they look. I can relate, because I’ve been there, too. And some days, I’m still there, like this morning when I put on my trusty, old favorite cardigan and realized that the buttons didn’t meet in the front.

While I’m on hold with the fine roadside assistance folks, I log in to Facebook and see my beloved Power Life Yoga in this New York Times article. I can relate with the woman in the article. She spends her days following political candidates. I used to do the same. I wasn’t a reporter, but I did myriad jobs on campaigns. Like her, I spent most meals eating the offerings of small town Iowa’s best fried foods (the only semblance of vegetables were various forms of corn and shredded iceberg lettuce) with little to no time to work out. Like her, I watched my waistline grow as large as my ambitions were high. On one campaign, I could see a Kosama boot camp from the office window and longed to be in those walls sweating away the pounds.

From another campaign I could see Power Life Yoga. The same Power Life Yoga mentioned in the reporter’s article. Like her walked into those doors hoping for a good sweat and a slimmer waistline. Unlike the reporter, after about a year of practicing yoga at Power Life my perspective changed. I wasn’t losing weight but I was getting really strong and I felt amazing. I slept well. I was able to handle stress better. Most of all, I understood my body. I became less obsessed with losing weight. I cancelled my Weight Watchers subscription.

Here is my point.

Just live your life! Just live your life and be happy and healthy and feel good. If a cupcake makes you happy, eat it! If wine makes you happy, drink it! Eat it, drink it, and move on. Don’t punish yourself at the gym later. Don’t eat a salad the next day for lunch because you ate a cupcake yesterday (the damage is already done), unless of course, a salad is what you really wanted. Feed your body what it is calling for. Do what feels good. This life is too short to spend our days unhappy because of what we are depriving ourselves of. Life can also be cut short by treating our bodies like shit.

I know what you’re thinking. “Jamie, you’re married. You don’t have to find a mate. You’re not dating in this brutal, cruel world.” You got me there. Look, if that person doesn’t want you because you are fat, or you think you’re fat, then you don’t want to be with that person. If your friends don’t want to be your friend because of the way you look, then you need to ditch those friends.

You’re probably also thinking, “Jamie, you’re promoting an unhealthy lifestyle. Obesity is unhealthy.” I want to stop you right there. I would never promote an unhealthy lifestyle. I would also like to note that weight does not always determine a person’s health. There are plenty of thin people that are unhealthy. Yes, there is an obesity epidemic in this country, but clearly promoting exercise is not fixing that problem. Why can’t we lose this obsession with how we look and how much we weigh and just love one another for what we are?

I don’t want to be one of those people that throws shade at something fun and lighthearted. That’s not what I’m trying to do here. The woman in the article is obviously a successful journalist at the New York Times doing a job she loves. Why should she, or anyone, spend her time worried about how fat she looks? How much easier would it be to get through the day if you didn’t have to worry about looking fat? I get it; it’s refreshing to see Iowa women in their “healthy size six” yoga pants when you usually spend time working out next to super models. I get that the article was intended to be fun and a nice change from the political articles she usually writes. But really, let’s stop focusing on how we look and focus on living our lives.