A few weeks ago I posted a video called Beauty in Strength that was done by CrossFit HQ. You can click here to watch the video, but the gist is that it’s a montage of super hot, super fit women doing CrossFit, with clips of each woman talking about body image and “beauty,” and how CrossFit has changed their perceptions. The core concept is that working out to achieve a certain look is not ever going to get you anywhere, but if you eat right and work hard, the shape of your body will take care of itself (and you will be allowed to workout exclusively in spandex shorts and sports bras for the rest of your days).

Fast forward to only a few days later, and CrossFit HQ aired a commercial during the ESPN broadcast of The Games that featured many of the same women. This much-shorter video (about 30 seconds long) shows these ladies squatting, rope climbing, doing GHB sit-ups… I mean, they’re definitely working hard. But it also includes flashes of split-second close-ups of butts in spandex shorts and boobs in sports bras, and ends with the words “Turning Sevens into Tens.”

When I first watched “Turning Sevens into Tens,” I felt pretty offended. Here is a video basically saying that if you aren’t willing to kill yourself in the gym and severely restrict your diet like I’m sure the featured women do most of the time, the best you can hope for in life is just being “a seven.” What it’s also insinuating is that these women possess very little natural beauty… I mean, a seven out of ten is barely a passing grade. Seemed pretty harsh to me.

I know that this is old news, but as most of you know, in the past few weeks I have been trying to take a better look at what I want out of CrossFit. And even though I tell myself that I am in it for the physical gains and the emotional tenacity, I finally had to be real with myself a few days ago and realize that if I keep ignoring my desire to obtain some of the cosmetic results as well, I am just lying to myself. To be honest, I would love to be able to throw on a pair of booty shorts and waltz around like I own the place without fear of losing objects in my cellulite dimples or blinding the world with my extreme paleness (I understand that CF cannot alter my pasty, pasty complexion… but I can dream).

And even though I think the execution of that video is inelegant at best, I’m starting to come around to it, because I get the message that hey, sometimes it’s ok to do stuff because of the cosmetic results. To be honest, I think that it’s just as “unhealthy” to want to be super skinny as it is telling people that it’s ok to be whoever they are, even if that person is inactive, unhealthy, and apathetic. Sometimes “Loving Yourself for Who You Are” means looking in the mirror and thinking, “I could be better.”