A Love Your Body Buddy

I’ve heard people advocate having a gym buddy… somebody to motivate you and another way to hold yourself accountable to some sort of physical rountine/regime. Generally, not a bad idea. Sure. But sometimes it’s hard to coordinate schedules, and besides… sometimes I don’t want company when I’m in get-it mood at the gym (I don’t need another witness to my crazy… my judging eyes can be more than enough). Similarly, when trying to “eat right”… that is refrain from wandering down the gluttonous path I am want to do… it doesn’t always help having somebody there to monitor your failure, point out what you already know, make you feel worse. If you are that friend, trusted with the task of keeping a buddy on track, you might notice them build a mild resentment towards you… mild turns to major… and next thing you know, you’re hearing rumors about yourself wherein you’re described as some sort of food nazi, gym drill sergeant, mad monster (all true, but still).

Language is a funny thing, a dangerous thing and a redemptive thing. Instead of a gym buddy, to whoop my ass into shape (or whatever other pertinent sadistic metaphor we’re often inclined to use), I charge my Love Your Body Buddy with keeping my thinking on track. When failing to eat super-healthy and hitting it hard at the gym are at risk of feeling like crime and punshiment, my Love Your Body buddy, puts things in perspective, reminding me that I am in fact human and not some sort of automated mistakeless machine. So on guilt-ridden days where words like sabotage, pigging out, demolishing, bad, losing (and not in the good way) or failing seem most relevant, she encourages me to re-think my word choices and thus my perspective.

The idea with a Love Your Body Buddy (LYBB - if this is starting to feel like a mouthful) is not to have somebody by your side shepherding you towards coronary heart failure or helping you to construct and maintain delusions wherein unhealthy choices have no consequences. Whether it's true or not, with self-love ought to come self-care. So being kind to both the inside and outside of your body necessitates a healthy and active lifestyle and mentality; working out and eating well become part and parcel of loving your body. Sometimes my LYBB and I meet at the gym super early in the morning, sometimes we go for long runs, frequently we encourage each other while navigating this vegan-vegetarian lifestyle kick we’re both on (more on that another time). But we neither police behavior nor unhelpfully sugarcoat reality. When it comes down to it, instead of becoming that person to dodge and detest, my LYBB is just the kind of person I love to keep around.