Fit Shaming Really Does Happen!

I get hundreds of emails per week.

Most of them are questions and transformation stories. 

Some are even a thanks for my blog posts and what I have done to help them thus far on their fitness journey. 

And then, on occasion, I will have that special one: the hater.

Yesterday, I received the email below:

This person did not leave a name, nor did they have a question, but they did leave their own little opinion.

This person basically said that the fact that I used my post-partum thighs as a before was deceptive. At first, I giggled and immediately thought, "Has this person not had a baby before?"  

It is hard for me to take these kinds of emails seriously anymore. I guess over 5 years of blogging has made my skin pretty thick.

Every body and pregnancy is so different, but I know that in MY pregnancy, my thighs were where my weight gain went. I got stretch marks there to prove it! I was left with a flat booty, cellulite, and wobbly thighs postpartum and I made it a goal of mine to really shape up my thighs. So, I did and I share my post about it.

Sure, I did not gain 2,457 pounds or have ever been obese a day in my life, but I was overweight back in 2010 in which I dropped 45 lbs. But is that not good enough?

At what point do we stop judging other women on their weightloss goals and accomplishments and start praising them for what they have done for their own body?

There IS such a thing called fit shaming and it happens everyday-even as much as fat shaming.

It may sound like:
"You aren't a real woman if you do not have curves."
"Being that fit is super unhealthy."
"Oh, well she was always fit before so it's easy for her."
"Her muscles make her look manly. Gross."
"She is a fit mom because she is always working out and never spends time with her kids."
"She used her pregnancy photo as a before photo. All she had to do was pop the baby out."

People are so quick to jump to judgements about everyone else's body except theirs, it seems. 

Every woman's journey is equally as impressive to me. I don't give a shit if you lost 5lbs or if you lost 100lbs-the point is that you are putting in the time and effort to better yourself and that is all that matters.

That itself, to me, is worth praising.