Gold Digging - I've Finally Snapped

In the mornings after I take my boys to school, I come home, get a nice cup of coffee and sit for a bit to read the news online.  This morning after reading an article I think I could have thrown my laptop against the wall... I snapped.  Why?  Nike's new women's t-shirt.

Joanna Douglas wrote the article I read and says "Was there not another more positive, inspiring phrase Nike could have printed on these women's tees? "Reach for the Gold," "Go for the Gold," or "Good as Gold," would have gotten the point across in Nike's trademark "Just Do It" sort of way. A gold digger is a woman out for a man's money. In this Olympic context, a phrase like "Gold Digging" implies you don't deserve or didn't earn your prize, and you went about obtaining it in a deceitful or unsportsmanlike way. The American women at the Olympics this year worked hard for their medals, and took home twice as many golds as their male counterparts."

Now, normally I could have seen this, rolled my eyes and just chalked it up to "shock" marketing.  But for Nike to come out with this after the Olympics just ending is appalling.  After these Olympics where if the US Women were their own country, they would have gotten like 4th in the medal count.  These Olympics where the US Women outnumbered the Men for the first time and dominated.

What finally made me snap was the fact that the coverage of women at the Olympics was laced with sexism and the focus of the women athletes was more on their appearance or their attire than their abilities.  Now, I know some will take issue with that comment, but when NBC came out with their creepy video called "Bodies in Motion" it validated all the frustration I was feeling about the media coverage of these athletes (female Olympians in general) who had trained so hard, sacrificed so much, represented their countries so well and deserved to be revered for their abilities and not just how their bikini bottoms rode up.  Greg Wyshynski of Fourth Place medal summed it up nicely.  "Bodies In Motion" was an online video produced by NBC in which women competing in various Olympic sports were featured in softcore, fetishist slow-motion highlights, while porn-tastic jazz music played on the soundtrack.  It looked like something a testosterone-filled teenager with a DVR would have spliced together for YouTube; instead, it was the official rights holder of the Olympics in the U.S. that produced it."

Thankfully, after much criticism, NBC pulled the video but to me the damage has been done.  What is it going to take for women athletes to be seen as ATHLETES and not objectified? 

Ok, rant over.  I usually don't do that but I have had enough.   Way to go Team USA women for making these Olympics the most successful for the US ever.  The majority of us were focusing on you and the sport and not your bodies in motion.

Before & After

Soooo, everyone is always thinking that getting in shape is all about how your body "looks".  What you have to understand is that working out, eating healthy, resting well, fueling your spirit and caring about yourself transcends the importance of looking good in a new outfit.  By far the most hits I get on this blog are from people who are searching for P90X before & after photos.  Here is the LINK to that post where you'll see my pics.  What you won't see is how finally caring about my health made me look on the inside.  I felt fantastic, wanted to do more with my boys and was able to translate that work ethic into other areas of my life.  While I no longer am affiliated with the distributors of P90X, I do stand by the product because you will have a great game plan to new health.  You can do it in many others ways and with many other programs, but that's just how I got started so I wanted to share it with you.

Let me know if you have any questions or would just like some encouraging words to get started where you are.

Olympics Craze

Our home has been abuzz with Olympic mayhem for 12 days now.  We watch any and every sport that comes on and we care not what it is.  That's not to say we don't have our favorites.  Basketball, cycling, track, swimming and gymnastics top our lists but, no lie, we have gotten pretty rowdy during table tennis, archery and speed walking.  There is just something about the excitement of it all.  All of the training, the preparation and the hardship these athletes have endured is astounding.  Then once there, you see their hopes and dreams played out and for a moment, you feel like you're part of their story just by witnessing it.

Since our house is and "athletic" household, I think the excitement of it all gets our competitive sport juices flowing.  It gives us that extra motivation to push through and shifts our confidence and momentum into overdrive.  Maybe we're imagining ourselves winning gold or at least finishing the race but I kid you not, we're all hearing the Olympic song in our head!

There are only a few days left of the Olympics so take this chance to make it about your family and the lessons you can all learn from it together.   In our house it's been awesome to be able to discuss the sports, the athletes, work ethic, dedication, dealing with loss, sportsmanship, adversity, perseverance, heart, etc.  We have had some great conversations with our boys and we encourage you to do the same!