Roxanne's Update: What Fitness Looks Like

One of the hard things with culture is the fact that it is constantly trying to tell you who you are or how you should look. In the North American culture that I live in it tells me that to be considered to be beautiful, healthy and in shape then I must be supremely thin with long lean muscles, but at the same time I need to be carefree - able to eat what I wish with the guys and to step out on any whim looking stunning - - - "Easy. Breezy. Beautiful Cover Girl" right? Everyday I am told over and over that if I want to be accepted or loved then I must lose 100 lbs. If I want to be happy and if I want to be happy with myself then I need to emulate these beautiful models that we see in advertising and other forms of media.
Maybe we have been lied to on what we need to be?
Perhaps it is time for a new definition of healthy? Of being fit?
Now please note that with this being said I am not saying that I don't need to lose weight. I understand that there are health reasons for why I do need to lose some of the fat deposits covering my body, and I am still working on that area of my life.
But maybe I don't need to be as hard on myself as I have been in the past when I'm not dropping a pound a day.
Perhaps there are other better ways of judging the changes in my body?
Did you realise that today was the fourth day of doing the 30 Day Shred DVD? And did you realise that I can now to most of the ab and strength work without a second thought? (Although my knee gives me hassels on some of the moves.) Now it's only the cardio I struggle with. But I'd like to see you do 2 minutes of cardio while carrying an extra hundred pounds, and I know that if I'm dilligent then this too will get easier. And do you realise that yesterday I walked a combined amount of approximately 10 km?
See I'm changing.
And although the scale today again stubbornly read 222.0 lbs I know that my body is a different make up then it was a year ago. I know I am stronger and fitter and have more energy. I know I am healthier, and although the scale is not agreeing, I know I am much closer to reaching my goal.
And it is because of this that I am not giving up.
And maybe this is a more accurate representation of what fitness looks like. A progression toward a goal of health, not a picture which culture constantly shows me. . . .
-Roxanne