The Internet is chock full of advice to parents who ought to be good fitness role models for their children. Like these tips for being a healthy role model to your daughter, most advice is specific, sound, and…focused on kids.
Clearly this is important. But what about us grown-ups who struggle with the ups and downs of trying to build and maintain a fit lifestyle? Who commit to exercise and then don’t feel like keeping it up, or who want to eat mindfully and healthfully but then blow it? Repeatedly? Don’t we need someone to show us that everyday people can and do make fitness a fun and normal part of their lives?
I say yes! And I’m not talking about professional ice skaters and Linda Hamilton in T2. We all need regular people like ourselves to be fitness peers with–to admire, emulate, and look to for support and mentoring especially because we are so much-like them. Not a world apart.
And so my favorite role model right now is Emily from fathom harvill. A knitter and runner and bicyclist and fit person who just finished her first triathlon and wrote eloquently about it on her blog. One of my favorite fitness posts of all time on any blog is in which she writes about the sweet anticipation of doing something extremely challenging but for which she’s trained and prepared. It’s truly inspiring. And she’s a knitter and knit designer, so I can totally relate to her, while I watch her get ready for the Death Valley Borax Marathon.
And just like we all need role models, I think we also need to pay it forward and – whenever and however we can – become role models ourselves. In this arena I’m no Nancy Kerrigan, but I like to think I do my part.
Do you have any everyday people that are role models for you?
Author by Larissa Brown
