The Bellybutton Challenge: WTF

As I was immersing myself in the going-ons of stories under the Google Health news tab, I stumbled upon the most recent internet "phenomenon" if you will called the Bellybutton Challenge.  Apparently it started in China last week and spread like an Asian wild fire across social media, along with the hashtag #bellybuttonchallenge.

Did you know about this?  I didn't know about this.

And I am very hip and current.

Except I will not embrace the return of the high-waisted shorts and slacks.  I just won't do it.

I mean...just because Kim Kardashian WEST is doing it is reason enough...let alone the ass it creates.

Sigh.  But back to business.

So the belly button challenge looks like this:

And according to a study from the US...which apparently cannot be located, and indicator of health for women is whether or not you can wrap your arm around your back, come around your waist, and touch your bellybutton.  I will wait.  Go ahead.  You know you want to try.  I will try it with you.

......

...........

GOOD GOD IN SWEET HEAVEN!  That was worse than I thought!  I can barely grab my side meat.  

Well shit.

I'm fat.

Be careful though.  Beijing Morning Post reported that a 24-year-old woman in Chongqing dislocated her shoulder from repeated attempts to reach her belly button.  

That's dedication.

I joke of course.  I mean, not about the fact that someone apparently really dislocated her shoulder trying to touch her damn belly button, but I joke about the overall stupidness of this.  But if you stop joking, it's actually kinda sad.

I have this vivid memory from college.  I was sitting in front of my entertainment stand watching a show about anorexia.  And I was journaling at the time (maybe that's why it's so vivid, I actually have the journal entry), and a girl was literally starving herself to death.  And I was jealous of her willpower.  And I thought to myself, "if I could be anorexic, at least I would die skinny."  AND IT ACTUALLY SEEMED LIKE OKAY LOGIC!  

We spend so much time comparing our bodies to the bodies of celebrities, neighbors, friends, enemies.  We spend so much time looking at the little "flaws" that we hate and spend so little time looking at the parts of us that are amazing.  We spend so much time on this quest to find the perfect diet or the perfect surgery or the perfect pill or powder that will finally...FINALLY...make us thin...that we cheat ourselves from enjoying the things are bodies WILL do for us.  

What if we just stopped hating our bodies.  

What if we just decided to love ourselves?  

Now I am not talking crazy talk here and saying that we shouldn't be doing things that actually MAKE us feel better.  

For example.  I can love my body but also love the fact that for nearly $12,000 I can have my boobs returned to their normal starting position.  

I can love my delts and traps yet work to love them EVEN MORE.

I can love myself but choose to have a surgery that may possibly grant me the push I needed to become HEALTHIER.

It's really hard to do this.  It's hard to focus on the positive and not ruminate in the negative.

This is what went down yesterday when I went into the restroom at work.  I would say that this conversation just happened inside my head, but I was actually talking out loud to myself.

Looking at my reflection in the mirror from the front: "Damn it.  I am so fucking sexy".  And then...as I turn around and look over my shoulder (I like to check out the caboose on the regular, but yesterday I was wearing light grey thin slacks and I KNOW I shouldn't look at my ass in light colored thin material) and I see my cellulite and I say "Ugh.  Fucking Cellulite".

I went from feeling so sexy to feeling disgusted.

I thought "Everyone is probably looking at my cellulite".

But just as quickly I decided "I'm going to pretend it's not there"...

I mean...what can you do about it?  Wear black slacks of course, but I mean right then and there in that moment I was stuck with what I was working with.

And I decided that even if someone WAS thinking I had a lot of cellulite in my ass, I wanted their next thought to be..."but she sure is rocking it".

lol

There are other examples of course.  When I am running I try to be thankful for a body, although slow and sometimes achy,  at least allows me to get out and propel myself in a forward motion.  

I might be a size 12 at the moment, but that's a long ways from the size 26/28 that I started at.

I might have stocky legs, but they are strong.

And that's how it goes.

We get to choose how we feel and how we frame our thoughts.

Simple right?

Happy Thursday.

If you dislocated your shoulder while reading this post, I do not take responsibility!