Sterotyping Fitness

Today I was talking with someone who made a remark like this:  "she doesn't really look very fit because she is pretty big."  I replied that you can't judge a person's fitness level by size alone.  I know a lot of very thin people who aren't fit and I know some bigger people who are toned and in good physical shape. 

This got me to thinking about how the "world view" influences people so much.  The world tends to taut "skinny" people (the size 0's & 2's etc.) as the goal to reach for.  I even saw a commercial once where someone said "I used to be a size 10 and now I am a size 4!)  When in the world has it become abnormal to be a size 10? 

You know, God made so many different body types and I think He pretty much knows what he is doing.  Take me, for instance.  My body type is technically an ectomorph.  That is a long, slender person who does not build muscle easily.  Well, I can tell you that is true.  I have been working at it for 30+ years and have never looked muscular.  My boys used to make fun of me when I was working out with weights.  They would say, "give it up Mom." (ha-ha!)  Oddly enough, the one who said it the most inherited my "Green" body type and he doesn't build muscle easily either!

I say all this just to encourage people to take the body they have and do the best you can with it.  None of us, skinny or fat, need to over indulge ourselves with food that is not good for us or become couch potatoes.  God expects us to take care of ourselves.  I just wish everyone would realize at an early age how very important this is.  I hear of so much early onset high blood pressures and cholesterol levels.  I just wish everyone would find something active to do that they like and stick with it until they realize how much better they feel.  Looking better will then come too, but that is not the bottom line. 

Work out for health and I think you will be pleased with the looks part.  Appreciate the body God has given you and don't go to extremes either way. 

From Psalm 139 we read:
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.