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Tip of the week
● In one day, write down all the things you think and say about your body.
Would you say those things to your best friend or mother?
If not, it's time to evaluate your self-image.
This week: I'm heading back to the doctor. I went out on my 20-mile run Saturday in new orthotics, hoping to cure my injury, but ended up getting another injury on the same leg. Right now I don't know where my health stands. Over the next three weeks, I'll figure out how I feel. I may have to postpone my marathon if this injury is serious. For exercise, I'll be in the pool swimming, but that's about it.

Accent

On Pace: Importance of feeling at home in your body

Opinion by Jennifer Duffy
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.20.2005
Angie Lyons has transformed herself through running.
The 27-year-old mom is no longer a clothes hanger.
She's an athlete who can glide through 13-, 14- and 15-mile runs with pride.
She no longer measures her body's worth by the size of her skirt — which, incidentally, has gotten significantly smaller since she began running — but by the strength and conditioning of her body.
"Before, I felt like I wasn't really at home in my body, like I didn't exist in my body. Running has helped me focus on existing in my body. I feel more secure," Lyons said.
In high school, she would starve herself to be thin and look good in clothes. After high school, she got married and gained 100 pounds over 10 years.
Lyons constantly criticized her own size and beat herself up for not looking the way she thought she should — until now.
"So much negative energy went into how my body looked. I looked at my body in pieces. My butt is big. I have thunder thighs. Too many rolls on my back. Now I look at my entire body and think, 'How are my systems doing? Do my muscles need more fuel? More water?' " Lyons said.
Lyons has found the key to a healthy body image: Focus on how your body functions, not its form.
In essence, choose health, not vanity.
Women are constantly concerned with "health," but we're really trying to look thinner, feel good in our clothes and earn praise from our friends and loved ones.
Let's not kid ourselves. That's not going to fulfill us and make us happy in the end.
Lauve Metcalfe, the director of program development for the University of Arizona's Center for Physical Activity and Nutrition, knows this and teaches it.
Metcalfe struggled with her weight and body-image issues during her days as a college athlete and then as a model. She starved herself to get down to 120 pounds (she's 5-foot-10) and didn't feel whole or happy.
"The interesting part is that when I looked most perfect for the camera is when I felt the worst about myself," said Metcalfe, 50.
Why? She was pursuing vanity, not health.
In the same suit, Pam Reed — the Tucson ultramarathoner most famous for her 301-mile nonstop run in March — suffered from anorexia for 15 years, not because she wanted to be a faster runner, she said, but because she wanted to look good in running clothes.
"My anorexia was never about running. It was about how I looked," Reed said.
Again, vanity over health. It happens to the best of us.
Metcalfe eventually quit modeling and went to graduate school to study body image. She focused her research on self-concept, body image and job satisfaction in Florida state employees and wrote a book, "Reshaping Your Body, Rethinking Your Mind."
Metcalfe channels her experiences and uses her research to help others reshape their body images. She has developed 11 steps to changing how you think and feel about your body.
We have to accept ourselves as we are, she said, before we can change our behaviors to create a healthy, active lifestyle.
Metcalfe says people can build confidence through challenging themselves physically and developing their athletic abilities.
Many of us don't feel like athletes, but as humans — and animals — we are.
And if you don't think you have much in common with Lance Armstrong but you still yearn for abs like Heidi Klum's, think of it this way: You're more likely to be an athlete —someone who uses her body to pursue endurance, strength or agility— than a model.
So, stop setting model expectations on your body and join the team of runners, walkers, swimmers and exercisers who find peace in a good workout and pride in their ability.
Lyons and Metcalfe have done it, along with legions of others.
You can, too.
As the late, great runner and writer George Sheehan said: "Everyone is an athlete. The only difference is that some of us are in training, and some are not."
Start training. It will reshape not only your body but, more important, the way you think and feel about your body.
On StarNet:
Jennifer Duffy is training for a marathon on Jan. 15. Check out more of her columns online at
www.azstarnet.com/sn/health
● If you're training for a race —especially the P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon — I want to hear from you. E-mail me at jduffy@azstarnet.com or call me at 573-4357. Also, if you ran your first marathon recently, send me your thoughts and tips for other first-timers.
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