11/19/2018
👏👏👏
ESPN does a yearly issue meant to celebrate athletes and the power and beauty of the human form. All the athletes are n**e.
This is Lauren Chamberlain. She is a softball player who recently graduated from OU and an accomplished athlete who hit 30 home runs as a freshman, setting a single-season record. Here’s what she says about why she posed.
“I don't think I said yes for myself necessarily. I said yes for the girls around the world who might see the issue and see someone who looks like them -- someone who's thicker, bigger, not as jacked as the typical athlete -- and that could give them that boost to love their bodies. Any time I went against my body and didn't give it what it needed in an attempt to achieve a societal norm, I let myself down. Sometimes, in high school and early college when I was dealing with insecurities about my body, not eating was disrespectful to my body. Not giving it what it needs to perform in order to achieve a certain look. If we're being honest, it just became stupid at a certain point. You're after this unattainable look, this Instagram look, and it's not achievable. I still deal with that insecurity. How am I not shaped and curved like that Instagram model? But you know what? She can't hit a ball like me or move like me. She can't do what I can do.”
I love this because we all have our own super powers. I can’t play ball like Lauren, but I have my own awesomeness going on, and so do you. We all do. So our health journey shouldn’t be about punishing ourselves and achieving perfection, but about celebrating what makes us uniquely amazing by LOVING AND NOURISHING ourselves with healthy food, heart-pumping physical activity and an inspired way of being built around creating a vibrant life. We all deserve that. 💚
