When I think of CrossFit, I think of people rolling over tires and doing a lot of exercises that I need to work up the strength to do. In fact, even though I workout and consider wellness an important factor of life, all the lifting weights and sqauts they do can seem very intimidating from the outside. So when CrossFit athlete, Jamie Hagiya shared a bikini picture via Instagram about about coming to terms with her body, it really put things into perspective for me.

“My body does not look like all the other Cross Fit Games female athletes with crazy ripped abs and zero body fat on their stomachs. I wish I could look like that, but I’ve come to the realization that this is my body.” The post has over 7K likes and almost a thousand comments, with people admitting that they too love the words she put out there that de-stigmatize what wellness and fitness looks like.

I'm going to address something that has been on my mind a lot lately. It's a hard subject for me since I struggle with body image issues but here goes nothing. My body does not look like all the other @crossfitgames female athletes with crazy ripped abs and zero body fat on their stomachs. I wish I could look like that, but I've come to the realization that this is my body. I work my ass off in training everyday. I eat clean for the most part, but am human and love to indulge in dessert every now and then. I'm in the best shape of my life and still don't have a six pack. Not even close to a 4 lol. Some of it is genetics and the other part is I could eat less calories to try to look like everyone else. But the bottom line is I need to eat to perform. I can't worry about trying to look like a "Games" athlete because having a six pack doesn't always make for the best athlete. So for anyone who thinks they need to look a certain way to be a Regionals or Games competitor, you don't. Stay on the grind and keep doing you!

A photo posted by Jamie Hagiya (@jamiejoyce2) on Jun 27, 2016 at 10:08pm PDT

Hagiya is a beast no matter what size she is, and her commitment to fitness should have no relation to her abs or the size of her thighs. It quite frankly shouldn’t be part of the conversation at all since she is clearly healthy and happy but society has a subtle way of tricking women into believing that beauty only comes in one narrow version. Hagiya placed fifth overall out of 40 women in the California CrossFit Regionals, and said, “I work my ass off in training everyday. I eat clean for the most part, but am human and love to indulge in dessert every now and then. I’m in the best shape of my life and still don’t have a six pack. Not even close to a 4 lol. For anyone who thinks they need to look a certain way to be a Regionals or Games competitor, you don’t. Stay on the grind and keep doing you!” We’re rooting for you Jamie!