Self-Esteem Campaign

We need a self-esteem campaign nationally. Here's why I think we need one:

--one person with an eating disorder is one too many--and it's estimated that 7 million women and 1 million men have one

--they have tons of ads on TV for how to hate your body, for example, when did not having a lot of eyelashes require medicine? I learned what things were bad to have from magazines and TV (unwaxed eyebrows, hairy legs, hairy armpits, any yellow cast to your teeth, etc.)

--since TV has taught me this, I demand TV to teach me as well how to be happy with who I am, regardless if I do or do not meet the many requirements of beauty.

--almost every woman friend I have ever met thinks they're too fat, regardless of size

This ain't healthy! Sharing how much we hate our bodies is a discussion I will not take part in anymore. No more body hating.

Let me know if any of you know about a self-esteem campaign. If there isn't, then this blog will be the beginning of one.

President's Fitness Challenge is My Challenge

Recently, I have discovered that there is a difference between being healthy (what I am) and being fit (what I am not). I discovered this when, amongst my personal training peers, I was incapable of doing a push up on the floor. By the time we were regressing the exercise to where I could complete 15 reps, I was doing push ups on the wall.

Everyone has to start somewhere, right?

The experience kicked my competitive nature into full gear. I wanted to come back to a personal training workshop in two years capable of doing a push up on a stability ball. I'd show them.

So much focus is placed on weight and diet these days. Everyone I know is on a diet trying to lose weight. But very little is placed on fitness, on cardiovascular and muscular endurance. And even though I eat healthy and am normal in my weight, I've landed in the 5th percentile in my ability to complete crunches and push ups.

My resolution: to take the fitness test on December 15 (cuz that sounds like a good day to me). Since they don't list the numbers I need to reach, I've been looking at data for the version for high schoolers. I'm going to try to reach those numbers. If I do, I will be actually in better shape than I ever was in high school:

These are the figures for landing in the 85th percentile as a 17 year old girl:

Push ups: 25
Crunches: 58
shuttle run: 10 seconds
1 mile run: 8:15 minutes
Pull ups: 1 (I'd love to do 4)
And my own additions:
Jump rope: 5 minutes
Handstand: Hold for 3-5 seconds
Single leg squat touchdown: 10 on the left leg with out my wobbly knee

My initial figures:
push ups: 1
crunches: 19
Shuttle: 13.1 seconds
1 mile run: 12:15 minutes
Pull ups: 0
Jump rope 1.5 minutes
Handstand: so far I haven't really gotten up all the way
Single-leg squat touch: 0 without wobbling

Every two weeks I'm going to retake the test. I'm determined to be fit. That's what this blog is about! Being fit, having fun, and enjoying eating.

Wish me luck! Oh, and if you want to try it yourself here's the links:

Presedential Challenge Teens

Presendential Challenge Adults

I passed!

You are now reading the blog of a certified personal trainer!

Two of my friends have volunteered to be guinea pigs for the next month. I did an assessment on them and wow, personal trainers are privvy to some very private information. I see that you really need to develop rapport with someone first before you ask them how much they weigh or if you can measure their circumference.

These are such sensitive areas for people (and me too) that I actually didn't ask to measure them because I was so afraid to step on their toes. My mom, who wants me to train her too, won't tell me how much she weighs, so how do I expect strangers to do so too?

This is gonna be a bit squinchier than I thought.