In this post, Coach Hannah shares her experience of redefining fitness goals based on her own desires, rather than blindly adhering to cultural norms. Enjoy!

For a long time I was running the race to be THIN.

(For most of my life, it didn't feel like there was any other choice.)

As a woman in America, it comes at you from all angles:

Thin is healthy.
Thin is attractive. 
Thin is achievable (if you aren't thin, you aren't trying hard enough, and you're probably lazy). 
Thin is the only worthy goal for your female body. 
Thin is measurable (by the number on the scale, by calories in and out, by the size on your clothing tags.)

...And you'll never know if you are thin ENOUGH, so keep hustling.

And hustle I did.

To be honest, I started strength training as part of my pursuit of thin-ness.

But luckily there are are some key differences in the pursuit of strength, that helped me widen my perspective. 

Strong is healthy
Strong is attractive
Strong is achievable (this is actually true, any body can get stronger, whereas not every body is meant to look like our cultural standard of "thin")
Strong is also measurable. (By how much weight you lift. By how many reps and sets you do.)

But here's my favorite part:

Strong is relative. 

Strong is not one size.