Sunday, October 25, 2015

Parenting for Feminists

I'm not a parent, and I never intend to become one, because, best I can tell: it's really fucking hard, and I just don't think I'd handle it well.

This blog post, over on Girls Gone Strong, address just one facet of parental responsibility to raise proper citizens, but it's a biggie. It's one that we simply cannot afford to get wrong any longer; we need to stop failing our girls, and we need to stop letting our boys become failures.

Please read it. Whether you have boys or girls, or are even a parent or not, you still hold sway in the lives of children around you. Children and teens are always watching and always learning, so make sure you're teaching the right things.

Read this, absorb the message our boys need to learn, and then help to teach them, in whatever your capacity: https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/raising-a-conscientious-boy/

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

For Those Who Love to Train Hard

Jen Comas totes nails it with this post. It's a healthy way to think about just how much training you need. It's couched in terms of fat loss goals, but really, it's true for ANY goal.

Why I like it:

It's a smart throat-punch to all the "fitspiration" bullshit that tells you if you aren't crawling out of the gym, you haven't worked hard enough

While she acknowledges the mental payoff you might be getting from such a physical beating...she tells you to knock that shit off anyway.

I mean, I suspect heroin feels totes amazing, as well, but it's pretty obvious that you shouldn't do it, regardless. So, let's apply the same logic to overtraining: it might feel good, but it's not worth the high risk that it will Fuck. You. Up.

It can feel good to work up a sweat, and a bit of soreness can serve as a nice reminder that we moved our bodies. However, the sad truth is that neither of those things means much, if anything, with regard to how beneficial the workout was. Those things may feel nice emotionally, but they don’t always have a solid physiological carryover. 
...
The body treats training as a form of stress and reacts to it the same way that it reacts to anything else that’s stressful—sick kids, a looming work deadline, or being chased by a bear. Training can feel good emotionally, but stress is stress is stress, and cortisol will always respond accordingly. 

Go fetch some smarts: https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/training-hard/