The Beginning

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"It isn't beauty, so to speak, nor good talk necessarily. It's just 'It'." 

  -Rudyard Kipling

I've been thinking a lot about what I want to fill this blog space with.  I want it to be helpful and interesting above and beyond just keeping people up with me.  The other day I was at a Halloween event.  It was lots of fun, but as I met people and introduced myself to them as an actor I noticed a funny thing happen.  A little switch flipped and they did this quick once over, taking stock of my appearance.  Working in the biz I've gotten used to it.  For better or worse thats how it is, but I also have met girls (and guys) for whom this experience is crushing. 

Working as an actor or model, life, jobs, self-perception and, so often, self-worth relies on looks.   Even outside of the entertainment industry business people and professionals face the necessity of making a good first impression every day.  And that impression tends to be visual. 

"Like it or not, judgments based on facial appearance play a powerful role in how we treat others, and how we get treated. Psychologists have long known that attractive people get better outcomes in practically all walks of life. People with “mature” faces receive more severe judicial outcomes than “baby-faced” people. And having a face that looks competent (as opposed to trustworthy or likeable) may matter a lot in whether a person gets elected to public office."  - Eric Wargo, Association for Psycological Science

So, looks may be only skin deep, but they are critically important in the world we live in, and they are part of a larger whole. That whole is your self-image.  Now by self-image I don’t mean your ego, and I don’t mean a heightened sense of vanity.  I mean how you see yourself. Whether you think you can succeed in your goals, or deserve success.  Whether you think you should be treated well in a relationship or deserve to be paid for your work.  You self-image has power over how far you are willing to dream and how much crap you are willing to put up with.   Fitness should be a powerful tool of self discovery and personal development that can feed a positive self-image.  But as many of us know it can also be a discouraging cycle of crash dieting, wasted gym time and weight gain.  

How we see ourselves is filtered more and more through the media we're sold, and I think its taken a toll on us. We’re told that we could always be more - more toned, more slender, more blonde, more trendy, more classic, more successful, more fulfilled...This focus on more, more, more, gets in your head and under your skin.  The rise of childhood obesity, pared with the rise in eating disorders in young and old, attests to the immense toll taken by this constant and sometimes contradictory pressure to always look better in order to mean more.

Thus I wanted to write a book on the subject...But quickly found out that my attention span is much more suited to blogging.  Taking a cue from Kipling and others who have mused about the "It" factor, I'm going to put together a collection of thoughts and experience about being a modern "It Girl" aimed at giving my sisters out there a much needed affirmation;  An affirmation that while appearances can matter - they don’t define you; An affirmation that fitness should be something you do for you - not for anyone else;  An affirmation that your dreams and goals are powerful - and can fuel your success.  

A lot of my experience comes from my year of pageant life, but as I've transitioned out of Queendom I keep finding applications in real life for what I learned.   Maybe you aren’t getting ready for a pageant, but you have goals.  You have dreams.  Maintaining a lifestyle of fitness without having to obsess over calories and workouts is a critical component of any successful person.  

My hope for this series of posts is much broader than just looking at the do's and don'ts of "it-ness" and fitness - just as my exploration into pageantry was much broader than simply wanting a crown. Fitness is part of a very important whole.  If you focus only on one part of that whole you end up lopsided as a person.  I am not an expert in the traditional sense.  But I’ve been there and done that, And beyond the science of nutrition and fitness I discovered that there’s a whole mindset that gets left out of the fitness discussion - a mindset that is critical to emerging from your diet feeling better about yourself rather than craving the loss of another 5 pounds.   

Stay tuned for thoughts, recipes, workout routines and more, and I hope you enjoy our exploration of what it really means to be a (f)It girl!