You say tomato, I say ta-mato….

"The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up."~Marilyn Monroe

****Before I get going on this next blog, let me just say that I was talking to a friend and she was like “Blog about this, everyone can relate to this shit”. So that’s what I did.  Let it suffice it to say, that yesterday though, after my evening run, I was complimented on my legs—worry, gone**

The other day, someone irrelevant to me, but all the same someone, referenced my legs as ahem…”cottage cheese legs”, or something to that effect.  I won’t lie, it stung for a minute just as hearing anything negative about your own body would…and I was taken a back…”me…cottage cheese legs”, Ouch. We all have our body issues, some people have legs they’d like to be longer, some people have noses that they’d like to change, big teeth that they’d like to see smaller, or even tall girls wishing they were shorter, or girls with short spunky hair-do’s that they wish they could grow to be long.  We all have kinks we’d like to iron out.

Believe me, my legs are the last thing I’d like to see changed.  My legs have taken me on long, windy adventures, through the mountains, and past the ocean coast, I have ridden over 500 miles on my bike  and two hundred of those 500 miles, I have ridden a century (that’s 100 miles in less than 24 hours)….have you done that irrelevant person?  Probably not. I have taught hundreds of spinning classes to people who come up to me later and thank me for an amazing workout.   I have run in marathons, halfsies, and so on. And I intend to do more, as the summer months come along.   My legs are strong. You see cottage cheese thighs, and I see the “Rock n’ Roll Marathon” in San Diego, CA 5 years ago.  You see cottage cheese legs, and I see legs that, after basically being anorexic for a good year and a half, have regained their strength and have forgiven me for being so abusive on my body. You see cottage cheese and I see the Giant Redwoods and the Mt. Shasta climb during my first 2 centuries.

Sure there might be a little layer of love on them…but then again, I’m pretty sure we all have that, and so what if I do, and someone else doesn’t, that person is no better or worse than me.

It’s hard not to start picking apart at yourself after something like that is said.  But, instead I picked up my running shoes, and went let my legs remind me how amazing my body is.