Happy Friday! 😀 I hope you all have fabulous weekends of either fun or relaxation awaiting you. I look forward to a massage and UGA game. I’ll still be around here blogging about self-love, so stop by and share your thoughts if you can. For now…today’s post!

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We cannot deny that part of loving ourselves fully comes with loving our bodies. We have already discussed the importance of appreciating what our bodies can do for us as well as avoiding the trap of idolizing them. How do all these thoughts and ideals play out in practice though? Exercise, if approached considerately, plays a significant role in helping us achieve self-love.

First of all, we need to take a closer look at what we classify as exercise. It does not only consist of running, taking intense fitness classes, doing yoga, or lifting weights. In my mind, exercise simply means movement of the body with a health benefit. So walking to and from work, dancing around your living room, chasing around your kids, strolling through a new city while sightseeing, hiking with friends, and so many other activities count as exercise. Just because we don’t visit a gym, a running trail, a yoga studio, or that area of our house marked off for our Insanity DVDs doesn’t negate our physical activity.

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We must also keep a few other things in mind when discussing exercise. The number one reason to spend time “working on our fitness” (as Fergie would say) is simply that. To work on our fitness. Our health. The benefits it provides our bodies. We need to love our cardio workouts first and foremost for strengthening our cardiovascular systems. We need to  love our lifting sessions for the extra bone density it builds and strength for everyday living. We need to love our yoga for the flexibility it provides our muscles to protect themselves and the ease of mind that reduces stress. We need to appreciate exercise for the endorphins to enjoy life, the appropriate hormonal levels to aid sleep and focus, and the additional strength at combating chronic diseases. Forget the smaller pants size and nicer arms. Exercise helps give you a better life to enjoy your body and all of its gifts! How could we even forget that?

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Having fitness related goals also can spark motivation, determination, and strength in an individual. Working towards an exercise involved goal is not a bad thing. In fact, it can promote self-love by uplifting a person and helping display admirable characteristics he or she might otherwise have ignored. While we must always be cautious of letting any goal consume our lives, we should take pride in our fitness accomplishments. Find something you truly enjoy and let it help the awesomeness of you shine through. Take caution to keep fitness related goals fun and then reap the positive rewards.

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As you can see, exercise has a lot of power to either strengthen us physically and mentally or wear us down in those ways as well. Our perspective and focus on exercise determine which happens to us. Do we take notice of all the fabulous things we do for our  health physically? Can we appreciate them even if not in the traditional workout setting? Do we enjoy our fitness activities and goals? Do we refrain from losing focus on life as a whole in pursuit of those goals? Let exercise fulfill you, not control you.

Has exercise ever controlled your life or defined you in a negative way? What ways can/do you pursue fitness for health and a stronger sense of self? I know when I trained for my fitness competition I allowed that goal to eclipse other areas of my life and lost respect of myself in the process. Realigning my focus to pursue fitness as something I love and to better my health made me feel strong and positive. In the future, I will still have fitness goals to give me something to be proud of, but will not allow them to overshadow  myself as a whole.

Quotes to Reflect On
Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states.  ~Carol Welch

Exercise is a dirty word.  Every time I hear it, I wash my mouth out with chocolate.  ~Author Unknown (just because its Friday and it made me laugh) 🙂

*To be added to the email list and receive links to the posts in the morning, please let me know of your interest in a comment below.

*For more 30 Days Inspiration visit these bloggers who shared their personal 30 DSLR messages and let me know if you share anything relating to the 30 DSLR on your blog! 

• Fitness Dish
• Healthy Living Adventures
• Miranda’s Jeans
• My Wellnest
• Smart + Strong = Sexy
• Two Feet Ten Toes 
• Adventures in Weight Loss 
• Ulterior Harmony
• The MOH Diaries
• Nourishing the Soul
• The Smart Kitchen

Before getting into today’s 30 DSLR post, I want to take a moment and declare my gratitude for all the warm comments and support I felt from you after last night’s post. I do not know where those dark forces came from to try to make me doubt this initiative. Going into this project, I only placed on myself the expectation to write what I felt strongly about. Any amount of support, participation, and reach from that would come as a blessing.

I still feel just as strongly about the 30 Days as I did when it first grabbed hold of my heart. If possible, I would never want it to stop and to carry on reaching people in some way because I believe in it so much. I don’t know what got into my mind to cause me to fret over such trivial matters. I have overcome it and realigned my focus. Now let’s get to what brings us here and what we all need – an uplifting moment. After all, a big reason I shared all those thoughts last night was to show that I need this just as much as anyone else.

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Last week, we began the first installment of the weekly "Gifts of the Body” posts. To view that post – click here. I decided that every week needed a day to take a closer look at our bodies and appreciate the blessings they provide us. Critiquing our bodies comes easily to many of us but finding praise in our physical attributes can pose a challenge. For this reason, I believe we must make the effort to change how we view our bodies.We need to shift the qualities with which we define them from aesthetic ones to purposeful ones. Hopefully, after completing 4 rounds of this exercise and having to come up with 12 different parts of ourselves we recognize as a gift,  we will grow to love our bodies more and more. Are you in for today’s challenge?

Today I will focus on three parts of my body I recently have questioned appearance wise thanks to the body changes from pregnancy.

My Legs

Thank you legs for giving me the ability to walk and move! Not everyone has this luxury and I need to recognize exactly how much you give me. You support me and carry me through life. Not only that, but the two of you are pretty strong too. You endure thousands upon thousands of squats, lunges, cardio hours, and kicks. You still hold me up even when I try to tear you down. You help me carry out a part of my life I could not live without – fitness. Thank you, legs.

My Butt

You reflect my mom and my sister…and even miss M. We all have the same badonkadonk and that fact alone has provided us many laughs and bonding over the years, like shaking it to Sir Mix A Lot. Without you, my legs wouldn’t have the capacity to serve me either. You play an integral role in my life. You also have a way of alluring my husband and that’s never a bad thing. Even when larger than I like, you still fill out a pair of jeans nicely. Most importantly though, you are a part of me and I love you.

My Breasts

You add strain to my back, get all tender, and overwhelm my body for a reason. To one day feed my child, just as you blessed me with the opportunity to feed M. You reflect the battle scars of one of the most beautiful things I have ever done – pregnancy. I also thank you for being the only place I tend to get those “battle scars” of stretch marks. Thank you for also giving me curves and displaying my body’s feminine beauty.

I hope all that wasn’t too uncomfortable to read. 😉 Take a few moments to think about 3 new things you appreciate about your body. I would love to hear about any of them!

Quote to Reflect On
Beauty in things lies in the mind which contemplates them. ~David Hume

The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason. ~John Cage

*To be added to the email list and receive links to the posts in the morning, please let me know of your interest in a comment below.

*For more 30 Days Inspiration visit these bloggers who shared their personal 30 DSLR messages and let me know if you share anything relating to the 30 DSLR on your blog!

• Lauren Sheenan
• My Wellnest
• New Adventures in Eating & Life
• Coffee Is My Carrot
• Adventures in Weight Loss, Cooking, & Life
• Lindsey Ann Live
• Respectfully Captivating
• Making A Change
• Ulterior Harmony