With all the hate floating around the world lately, I’m choosing to love.

Love those around me, love what I’m doing, love the moment and most importantly: LOVE MY BODY. I’m doing things a little bit different on this particular Workout Wednesday and instead of sharing a new workout or cute fitness gear or a rundown of my week I am sharing four things I love about my body. To some people, thinking of reasons they love their body may be easy but in all honesty, this didn’t come without struggles for me. I regularly view my body in a negative light and more often than not I’m cursing it instead of praising it. Call me crazy, but I sometimes talk to myself after a run and if you could listen in you’d likely here ‘damn it left knee, stop hurting, we only ran 5 miles‘ rather than ‘thank you legs for enduring that incline workout, you’re much appreciated.‘ So when did I start loathing the skin I am in? For as long as I can remember I have had a laundry list of things I wasn’t impressed with physically: my nose, my overall build, weak arms, lack of abs, etc. but only recently have I consciously attempted to focus on positive traits. No more hate for my body; only love for it.

I love my body’s toughness.

For someone who was never the fastest, tallest, strongest person on the court or field, toughness was something I could match anyone around me with. Being told I couldn’t do something, wasn’t quite ‘good enough‘ to make a team, etc. didn’t discourage me but motivated me to work harder and prove people wrong. My somewhat small-ish, petite frame is capable of a lot more than even I realized or imagined. My feet, knees and legs have endured hundreds and hundreds of pavement miles over the past few years and my tiny wrists have toughed out the thousands of push-ups I’ve forced them to endure in my quest to be able to crank out multiple, real, adult-style ones!

I love my body’s resilience.

Not many people know this but I have 2 herniated disks in my lower back and I deal with numbness, tingling, pain and weakness in my left leg on a daily basis because of it. I’ve undergone surgery on my right knee. While I’m most definitely coordinated, I run into things regularly so you can usually find a handful of bruises on me at any given time. I was in a car accident that messed up my neck/shoulder alignment. Despite all of those ‘negatives,’ my body has constantly ‘corrected’ itself and bounces back time & time again. It’s constantly allowing me to push and train harder and move outside my comfort zone in terms of distances and weights.

I love my body’s strength.

Not just in terms of how heavy I can lift or how many reps I can do of a certain move, but mental strength as well too. I’ve undergone months & months of fertility treatments and my body has been put through the ringer. I’ve been bruised from countless shots to the stomach and bloated from the insane amount of hormones that have been pumped into my system. But my body has responded so well and been so strong throughout the entire process. Despite those hurdles, it’s never quit on me. It’s allowed me to achieve goals I never thought I could. And then on the numbers side, I can curl 25s {not many times but it still counts}, I can squat my body weight & then some, I can do 25 real push-ups in a row and running 13.1 miles is something I legit can handle.

I love my eyes.

Definitely not fitness-related but they’re a body part so they totally count. My driver’s license says I have green eyes but ask Kyle and he’ll tell you that they’re actually ‘wolf eyes.’ Is that a compliment or nah? 😉 I guess I’d say they’re a grey-ish, green-ish combination that tend to take on the color that I’m wearing. I like the shape of them, their requirement for minimal makeup to be noticeable and the fact that you can glance at me quickly and gauge my mood by my eyes. A good characteristic and a bad one too, HA!

Ok babes–enough about me. Now it’s YOUR turn! What are a few things you love about yourself?! I’d love to start a positive body image trend in the comments below!!! <3