Hey hey everyone! How's your Sunday been/going/planned? I gotta say, mine has been thrilling. Well, as thrilling as you can be during lockdown. Earlier, while I was replying to your comments from yesterday, my housemate started yelling from the shower. Uh...I hope she does not want me to help her wash? No, not that bad. But there was smoke coming out of the light switch, the wall was hot, and the bathroom was full of nice burning plastic smell. Perfect. Just perfect. Obviously we turned it off, and very luckily it cooled back down and the smoke cleared out, but of course we can't turn the lights back on until we get it fixed. And tradies aren't allowed to come to your house under lockdown except in emergencies. Hopefully "my house is on fire" counts as an emergency. Or else I guess we could get the fire brigade to come knock the wall out? Anyway we are eagerly awaiting Monday working hours to get this taken care of, and in the meantime I am debating whether I should skip my workout and its subsequent shower, or just take one in the dark.

Anyway, back to the lack of nature photos. I was listening to the World Service the other day, and this program on fat hatred came on: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszjqh. So then one thing led to another, and I got to thinking about how women's beauty standards change across time and space, and how arbitrary they are. It feels pretty normal, especially for women, to complain that this or that is not the right size or shape, and then berate and hate and punish ourselves to try and mutate ourselves into something other than what we are. I'm guilty myself. But why? Where does this pressure come from? Is it really for health reasons? The program says it is not, and I gotta agree. Of course there is lots and lots of evidence that being too fat or too skinny puts you at higher risk of a whole load of diseases and issues, but I think aesthetic goals like "I wanna get rid of cellulite" or "I wanna be a svelte size (whatever)" is unrelated to that. But what is the popular aesthetic goal of the masses is cultural, and changes depending on where you are and when you're there. Naturally curvy ladies might have been trying to waif-down when heroin chic was in, but now the naturally willowy may beat themselves up with exercise to get a bigger bum. It's a moving target, and it's totally subjective. You can't win.

So, I was thinking maybe we could try the opposite. What's something you like about your body? Doesn't have to be an aesthetic quality. Maybe you have good eyesight, or you'd like to give a shout out to your kidneys, or your immune system reliably protects you from flu. Or hey, without getting too narcissistic, maybe you really like the shape of your calves. Or you appreciate your body's ability to grow babies, or chop wood, or go mountain climbing.

And, while we're at it, we'd better get down to business! Are you exercising today? What routine, or maybe you're resting? Feeling good or feeling otherwise? Any exciting menu options today? I did a lower body strength workout last night, and boy was I pleased with myself. But now I'm sore! Oh well, it was to be expected. Upper body then for me.

Thanks for checking in with me everybody, and thanks for letting me ghost!