Something resonated with me today. As I was scrolling through the RMA feed there were countless comments on our pics of ourselves from races that saw members putting themselves down…”It’s not a great pic, I look like a whale, I look awful, thats not my best angle” etc. Now I am one to have a dig at myself with photo’s also, but I am also very aware of where I have come from in life and where I want my brain to process where I am in a particular moment with my image. You see, for years and years and years I suffered from an eating disorder, so it took me a good decade or more to actually learn to love who I was and what I looked like. Now when I think back, a 45kg girl can’t have ‘rolls’ on her belly. There simply isn’t any fat there to sustain that, but try telling me that when I was in the blackest of moments with my eating disorder. My vision was totally skewed.

As mums we spend our days working, raising kids, picking up everyone’s crap and then some and living on zero sleep, and then sometimes we may even get to eat…and it’s probably going to be something that doesn’t take too long to prepare! Cut yourself some slack and pat yourself on the back, because amongst that you got out there and trained. You ran that half marathon, or 10k or even that few km that you managed to knock out in the small window of time that you had!

The message that I want to get across here is love your body. 

Love your body, not for what it looks like, but for what it can do.

So much of our society is built around image, and if we focus on that too much then we are drawn to believe that we are less than what is ideal. Especially in the sporting and health industry, we only have to flick through an instagram feed to feel like we are less than ok within our frame. Perhaps Instagram is really the next cleo.  But the most important thing is, is our mindset in the right place?

As I prepared to take the start line of the Sydney Morning Herald half marathon last weekend I took some time to have a look around me. Now, I saw no super model types standing within 100m of me. There was fit people, old people, young people, overweight people, short, tall, muscly, skinny….it took ALL SORTS to run a half marathon on Sunday. So cut yourself some slack and next time you see a pic of you running a race, celebrate with the fact that you got out there and ran. Love your body for what it can do, not for what it may look like to you, because people will remember that you ran 21.1km before they will remember that you are a size 10, 12, 14, 16, 18. And celebrate. You are a running mum, so you have EXTRA to be proud about. Your body has been through the ringer, probably more than once, growing babies and carrying around sleepless nights and you are still out there giving your body the best it can have…..for you and your family.

Love your body for what it can do. Treat it like a vessel. It has a big job to do. And celebrate.