So I love watching repeats of Sex and the City on TV. I don’t have to focus on them because I’ve now seen them all, but they are also ALWAYS entertaining. The episode I caught last night really grabbed my attention. It was called “Models and Mortals.” It discussed women having to measure up to the beauty of models, a beauty that didn’t seem attainable (which after my post about body image  was really fascinating to me).

At one point Miranda, Charlotte, Carrie and Samantha were all sitting around eating and discussing what they hated about their bodies. Of course Samantha said she liked everything about her body (GO SAM! I’d love to be able to include a comment right now about how she lifts weights in the show…but….at least they show her at the gym in a few episodes…).

Carrie’s monologue then says something along the lines of “How can three otherwise rational women be made so self-conscious and insecure just because they looked at a model?”

My question is why does this happen?

What is it about models that makes us feel so insecure about ourselves and seek out the latest and quickest fad diet? Is there a way to stop it?

I think there is….it’s called living a healthy lifestyle 80% of the time – eating well, sleeping enough, exercising and PLAYING! Of course I included sleeping enough in there when I definitely haven’t been BUT it is a huge part of healthy living! If you live a healthy life (with cheat days of course!) you will feel better about yourself in general…at least I’ve found this helps.

When I know I’m eating well and lifting heavy, I’m more confident in how I look because my body feels good. It feels like everything is working in harmony. Of course, sleep also helps…partly because if you get enough sleep, you have less of the stress hormone, cortisol (which can hinder you from losing weight) and partly because if you get enough sleep, you have the energy to get a truly good lift in. As Fitbomb repeated says in his blog…if you don’t get enough sleep there may not even be any point in working out at all!

And now you may be wondering about why I said PLAY. Because play is active and another form of exercise? Yes! But also because you relieve stress when you play. This summer get out in the sun! Go run some sprints. Go swing on a swing. Go paddle boarding! Find something active and outside that you love to do and get those endorphins going! While I love weight training and think it is probably one of the best thing you can do for your body, playing is right up there! So don’t skip your lift but maybe play instead of doing cardio today! 🙂

As my sister loves to quote from Legally Blonde, “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands, they just don’t.”