You are not a number

I figure y’all need a break from all things doggie.

I started writing this post before Bandit entered our lives, and I think it’s a very important post: it is easy to define ourselves by numbers, but we are so much more than any number associated with us.

 

It’s free Friday this week’s Friday Five  from Cynthia from You Signed Up for What?, Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, and Mar from Mar on the Run and I suppose it’s appropriate for a Friday Five post to revolve around numbers.

You can’t stop the march of time

Age

You are as young as you feel.

It’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.

We don’t stop running because we get old, we get old because we stop running.

All those quotes are true. I’m not saying things don’t change as we age — they do. We can choose how we react to those changes, but our age does not define us.

Finish Time
And speaking of things changing as we age . . . I’m lucky, I guess, in a way, that I started running when I was older. I haven’t yet hit the “wall” of age, that point when our finish times begin to decline.

In fact, Coach Debbie recently wrote an excellent post on that very subject: Running Against Time.

My finish times can be all over the place, though.

I actually do think finish times can be important, and there’s a blog post in there someday, but the most important thing is that you got out there and moved your body.

Someday, inevitably, my times will slow — which is always surprising to this turtle runner, but it’s true — we can age well, but we will still age. When that happens, I hope I do not let declining finish times define me.

Scale
The scale doesn’t reflect how well you ate. The scale doesn’t tell you how much muscle you put on or lost. The scale doesn’t tell you how consistent you were with your exercise. The scale doesn’t say just think about the sodium laden meal you consumed before stepping on me.

It’s a tool, but the number it spits out at you doesn’t mean you’re a good or bad person, a winner or a failure. It’s data, plain and simple.

Clothing Size
Don’t even get me started on vanity sizing.

I’m normally a small or about a size 6 in pants. But I have clothes that are XS and M, and all the way up to a size 10 — that fit me.

There is no holy grail clothing size to shoot for, because there is no standard sizing. Moving on.

Steps
Everyone likes a challenge, right? It seems like the more steps, the merrier. You know those nasty little things called stress fractures? Basically they happen when you overexercise. And you know what? You can overexercise with any exercise, not just running.

Yes, walking too much could lead to a stress fracture, too.

I’m not saying that it’s a bad idea to look at your steps, or even to shoot for more steps. But do it intelligently — don’t shoot for a certain number of steps because that’s what someone else is doing. Treat it like running: don’t increase too quickly; remember, slow and steady wins the race.

I’ll leave you with this very short video (yes, Tricia, Karen, and Paula — did it on the first try):

Let me know what you think in the comments:

What changing number are you okay with?

What changing number bothers you?

Do you find yourself defining yourself with numbers?