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What is a healthy and beautiful body?

What is a healthy and beautiful body? What does it look like? What does it feel like to have it?

I find myself asking this question as I strive to live a healthier and active life. Some people choose to loose weight or tone up and get healthier just for the wedding. After all, your wedding day is a day unlike any other. You should be and feel beautiful on your big day.

Everyday I see different ads on tv and in magazines that sell a particular brand of beauty.

There's a pill to boost energy and reduce weight. There's a mask you can spread on your face and peel off a minute later to make you magically look 10 years younger. There's a DVD with an exercise to slim down your size. There's a brand of specific foods to better your health. There are elastic bands, surgeries, creams, lotions, potions, spells, and all kinds of doctors, witchcraft, and substances to make your skin shine, teeth whiter, hair grow, hips smaller, tummies tuck, and bippity boppity boo you to be Cinderella!

It confuses me sometimes because everyone is different. We are all different shapes, sizes, colors, body types, and races.

Who are these ads for, anyway? Because I don't look anything like those women advertising, at all! Honestly, I look like a woman at an average height, womanly curves of hips and breasts, and I have a normal, healthy amount of energy. But I'm definitely not a model on an ad for anything. Is that okay?

Of course it is okay!

Yes, there is always room for improvement, but as long as I'm aware of that and treat myself well through the process of improvement then it is all okay.

I used to think that I was fat. I watched these television ads that showed women in size 2 bikinis running around smiling on the beach. I'd put myself down because of these ads that I allowed myself to believe I had to be like. I would call myself fat, and just sit around and whine about it. But that did not help me at all physically, spiritually, or mentally.

I had to educate myself on different body types including size, shape, height, and proportions. I realized that everyone is not built the same. These advertisements are for people who were like me, walking around with low self esteem and desperate for a quick solution to a problem that require self care, not advertisable magic.

What I did was just adjust my regular routine to something that I can keep up with and make a way of life. It is not just a so called "diet" that I'll do, and then stop once I reach a goal. It is something that I can work into my routine and do everyday. It is a way of living.

I really dislike diets and it's so hard to get your body to do something that you're just not used to. It's not something you can just jump into!

First, I cut down on my portions. I only eat when I'm hungry. I never eat until I'm so full i'm bursting out of my pants. Eww! LOL I don't snack on foods just for the sake of it. And I walk at least for a half our everyday. I go dancing at least once a week, and I do a home exercises at least 2x a week.

In 1 year I've gone down from a size 22 to a 14 doing just that and not faltering or messing up, because it's just apart of the normal routine. I'm not a size 2. I can probably never be a size 2 because I have a different body type. It's been hard work to get to where I am now, but it's all been worth it. I'm still working hard, but that's just life. To get what you want you have to work for it and feel good about it. I'm still working hard to reach my goals.

Unlike a year ago, I can look at myself in the mirror and say that I am healthy and beautiful. This is what it looks like and feels like.