THICK THIGHS SAVE LIVES.

October 6, 2015

THICK THIGHS SAVE LIVES by Super Strength HealthI want to talk to you about my thighs.

Let’s start from the beginning.

I have weighed many, many weights in my life. The common denominator for every single one of these weights is this: no matter where the number fell, no matter how small I got, I felt certain of one thing: my thighs were just too big.

I did not (do not, will not) have the kind of thighs that do not brush up against one another.

I did not (do not, will not) have the kind of thighs that easily fit into stiff denim. That remain demure and unobtrusive. That can be ignored.

I have spent years pissed off at my thighs, disgusted at what they were (huge) and what they would never be (invisible).

I have spent much of my life imagining what it would be like to whittle my thighs away. To cut slabs of flesh from the tops of my legs, peel the fat off, and discard them.

I have spent hours of time, hours that probably amount to days and months of time, on an elliptical machine hating my thighs, viscerally and specifically. I wished my thighs dead, ran in circles step after step trying to burn them away.

—

Deciding that someone else’s thick thighs were kind of amazing was my first step.

I saw these thighs in a squat rack. They were attached to a body holding a barbell with hundreds of pounds of chunky metal plates. They sunk down, supporting the brunt of the bar, and they popped back up, almost effortlessly.

These thighs were undeniably big. They were strong and I was very intrigued by the way my eyes were drawn to the thickness of them. I didn’t want to notice the thighs, but I also could not look away.

Could I actually admire these thick thighs and hate my own? Was that a parallel that I could manage to pull off?

This question haunted me, both as I fell to sleep at night and when I woke up to get back on the elliptical. Was it possible to live in a world where thick thighs were just okay? Where they were accepted as fact, embraced as a pillar of strength, or even just generally not thought about at all?

—

I saw the first pair of thick thighs that I admired years before I accepted my own.

Sure, the seed was planted. But it took focus to change my own mind about something. It took effort to make new thoughts stick.

“My thighs are fine” I said, until, eventually, I felt like “fine” wasn’t really good enough anymore.

“My thighs are powerful” I thought, until I realized that powerful was indeed what they were, but that that certainly wasn’t the breadth of how I wanted to feel about them.

“My thighs saved my life” I thought, almost kind of surprised.

Huh I thought.

My

Thighs

Saved

My

Life

Kind of a weird thing to think. But it was true, wasn’t it?

That my thighs walked me away from my alcoholic abusive parent as a teenager?

That they supported me when I no longer wanted to get out of bed?

That they took me, step by step, to every group therapy meeting I went to, every doctor’s appointment in the early days of recovery, even when I felt too tired to move? To the homes of every caring friend, to the gym and through every deadlift, sprint and push press?

Respecting my thighs became a conduit.

It brought me connection and intimacy because I stopped being afraid of eating, moving, and living amongst other people.

It brought me closer to my mom and my sister. Women of the same thighs, women that I wanted a relationship with more than I could even articulate or understand.

It brought me to women aside from my sister and my mom too, and to queer folks. Holy shit- I guess I am not the only person that has struggled with hating a certain aspect of my body. I guess I am not the only one who could have used a little support.

Embracing my thighs brought me to a personal nutrition practice rooted in loving the ever living shit out of every inch of my being.

It separated me from using exercise as a torture mechanism.

It took me away from the battle against myself- and it brought me right back into my life.

—

PS Lately, when I’m not waxing poetic about body positivity, I am spending much of my time formulating recipes for the newest Reset and Restore program, starting on November 2nd. If you’ve been looking to get a little more awesome with your mindfulness around food and body, this is totally your place.

PSS Isn’t that patch AWESOME? You can buy it here. (This is totally not an affiliate link, I just really like it and want many people to have it!)

This entry was posted by Lacy Davis in and tagged Self-esteem, , body image, feminism, lifting, self compassion, self-care, bodies, get stoked.