“To all the girls that think you’re ugly because you’re not a size zero, you’re the beautiful one. It’s society who’s ugly.”
Thank you, Lady Gaga, for channeling the words of Marilyn Monroe through your BODY REVOLUTION campaign and reminding us that our flaws can be fabulous.
Your recent photos make me smile. I don’t see a pop star who has
gained twenty-five pounds, I see a woman who is pouring her passion into
her craft and doing what she loves on her own terms.
Here in Syracuse, there’s a team of girls who has not only accepted
our bodies despite our excess weight, scars and other imperfections,
we’ve shown society what we can do with them.
And we want you to come and do a REVOLUTION RIDE with us to help support the BODY REVOLUTION and get the next generation of girls feeling as good as we do.
Over the years this group has collectively completed 4 Ironmans, 14
Half Ironmans, 12 marathons, and 187 miscellaneous swimming, biking or
running races, covering a total of 4235.6 miles.
Based on that, you might imagine us to look a certain way. Society
says that athletes should be skinny. We should be lean and muscular with
near-perfect bodies. Sound like any other industries you’re familiar
with?
But we’re not—and like you—we couldn’t care less that we don’t fit
the mold. We’re in this because we love what we do. We are fueled by our
passion to reach new limits, not our desire to uphold society’s
expectations of what an athlete should look like.
And we don’t hide our bodies because they aren’t “athletic” enough.
We’re sporting the same tight shorts and teeny tops that the world
champions do. Society be damned!
For three years now, I’ve been volunteering as a coach and mentor with the local chapter of Girls Inc,
a national non-profit organization that inspires girls to be strong,
smart and bold through life-changing programs and experiences that help
them navigate gender, economic and social barriers.
I lead them through a series of workshops rooted in fitness—not
because I want to give them the tools to LOOK a certain way, but because
I want to give them the opportunity to FEEL a certain way.
To me, fitness isn’t about exercising your body—it’s about exercising
your mind in a way that makes you feel something so strongly you have
to move. That’s the way I’ve taught my spin class for the past seven years, and it’s the way I’ve executed every race I’ve ever done.
The way you tackle a piano with
emotion, technique, and hunger is the same way we tackle each workout.
The way you own the stage for hours on end is the same way we’ve taken
to the roads for hours on end (Ironman can last for 17 hours…ride, ride
pony!).
Girls need to know that this kind of strength and fire doesn’t come
from conforming to society’s idea of what they should be doing. It
doesn’t come from throwing up, cutting, abusive relationships, or drugs.
It doesn’t come from those short-term vices we find and rely on in our
darkest moments.
It comes from accepting yourself and your flaws and being brave
enough to feed your passions despite the obstacles that are in your
path. It comes from feeling good enough about yourself that you can rise
above the pressures from society to look and be a certain way—as a
superstar, as an athlete…
As a woman.
In that spirit, I would like to invite you to lead a #RevolutionRide
spin class with me to support the next generation of girls who are
fighting against society every day—from the people in their day-to-day
lives who judge and bully them, to the strangers at large who stereotype
the way women should look and behave.
I promise you an hour of sweat, fun,
progress, and acceptance with hundreds of women who will proudly flaunt
their flaws together on the fly wheel to raise money for Girls Inc.
Let’s get on the bike with our huge asses and give society a big
middle finger as we pedal to a better place and empower girls
everywhere. Are you with me, Gaga?
Yours,
Lisa
little monster, fat triathlete and passion junkie
Follow this cause on Twitter at #revolutionride with @spinningleese, or on Facebook.com/revolutionride
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