This past week I was listening to Anne Hathaway talk to Matt Lauer about her role in Batman. She told him the directors of the movie asked her to “get strong, not skinny”. I love that message! It is so simple, yet one that I needed to hear. And I’m assuming most of my bloggity blog readers may need to hear as well.
I can’t tell you how many times I talk to my coworkers, friends and family about getting skinny, losing weight and fitting in to clothing that is a size too small. Each day I commiserate with friends about putting on extra pounds, making bad choices and being out of shape. We all know what to do, we all know how to fix our dilemma, yet for one reason or another choose not to do it.
When I heard Anne (cause you know we are buds, so I can refer to here as Anne) talk about getting strong and how great she felt kicking and fighting during the action scenes I felt a twinge of jealousy. I want to be strong! I want to be able to kick and fight like a guy.
True confession – I did take a boxing class once. I did ok, but when it came to the kicking part, my girly girl came out. In my past life as a cheerleader I perfected the pointed-toe long-leg high-kick. My tootsies can face the stars and my legs will stay straight as an arrow. This is perfection for dancing and yoga, not the same effect at the boxing gym. I kicked like a girl! I told my boxing coach I jumped and kicked like a girl. He didn’t understand… From my perspective, I kicked to be pretty, I kicked to have great form, I kicked to look good and be liked.
After hearing Anne, I want to kick to kick some butt too! I want to be strong and stand up to that darn punching bag and kick the crap out of it and look tough doing it.
I am not saying that I will be tough overnight, nor am I saying that I will ever be Anne’s version of Cat Woman. However, now I realize that instead of being skinny, I want to be strong. Instead of focusing on pointed toes and straight legs I want to focus on muscle and where my legs will take me. I am sure that I will still revert back to being a girly girl and worry that my form isn’t perfect, but in the meantime I am going to focus on bringing strength to my life and seeing where my new self will go!
