It’s crazy how capable our bodies are. Yet despite all that our bodies do for us, we somehow seize nearly every opportunity we get to tear it down by not loving ourselves and our bodies enough.
Imagine completing an Ironman triathlon – your body is put under tremendous pressure as you complete a 3.86km swim, a 180.25km cycle, and followed by a 42.2km run. In Lisa Samantha Jones’ case, she didn’t just complete an Ironman triathlon in 2012 – she clocked the best timing in the 40-44 age group at the age of 40 at the Ironman UK.
“A friend said to me that they were going to run a half marathon and said ‘Do you want to do it?’ and I went ‘No, I bike.’ But then I thought ‘Why not? I’m fit. I might as well try something else’ and I got really caught up in running and running faster. I could run quite well since I was fit and it just escalated,” she commented.
Yet despite her amazing sporting accomplishments – not without injuries such as a strained left groin and a slipped disc – the first thing the 44-year-old British did when she saw a less-than-flattering picture of herself running during Run for Hope was to criticise her body and think of deleting it.
Fortunately, she came to her senses and realised that her body is incredible for being able to get through so many triathlons. She said, “I love my body – all bits of it that don’t jiggle and all the bits that do. The lopsidedness I have when I run so that you can tell it’s me and the determined look I have on my face in many pictures when I don’t spot the damn camera. Whether you run or not, it’s not the point – the point is to love yourself.”
Growing up, she was often called Lisa Jones ‘Bag of Bones’ because she was real skinny, but Lisa didn’t let it get to her. She only started feeling more conscious of her body when it started changing due to puberty and she was working at a pub at 18.
“I remember very clearly going shopping with my mum once and trying clothes on and going ‘Yea, but…’ and my mother went ‘Honey you’re a woman now. You have hips and boobs.’ And I went ‘But I don’t want them!’ All of a sudden, I just wondered what was going on with my body. I hadn’t thought about it before.
Throughout her life, Lisa has always had an unhealthy obsession with sugar as she grew up in a household where sweets and chocolates were always around her. She only realised how bad her problem with sugar was when she left the UK in 2001 and had gained a total of 12kg to hit 71kg after consuming one too many sugary treats along with a lack of exercise. Lisa controlled her diet and picked up a regular exercise routine again, but although she managed to lose some weight, her sugar cravings were very hard to control.
“I started opening up about it and I actually wrote a sugar blog, explaining my worst day. I told a few people; I had a friend who told me to make sure I get some sweetness in each of my meals so I’m satisfying that sweet craving. I then noticed that my sweet binge usually occurs when I was lonely, stressed and upset. Once I recognised the emotional connection I had with sugar, I managed my sugar cravings a lot better. I’d ask myself ‘What are you missing? What do you need?’ Phone your friends up. Talk to someone. Do something other than that self-sabotage. Now I can have some and not finish the whole lot.”
Two years ago, Lisa moved to Singapore to work as a Pilates and Movement Trainer at The Moving Body. As a fitness instructor, there is an incredible amount of pressure on her to look the part even though she’s extremely fit, as highlighted through her Ironman triathlon feats.
“From a career perspective, because it’s part of my profession, my physique is important as people typically wouldn’t want to train with someone who doesn’t look physically decent. BUT the fact that we put so much sway on body image and judge people by it disgusts me. So it’s a catch 22 for what I do versus how we view it,” Lisa remarked.
Today, after being in a much better place, Lisa just hopes that everyone will be able to love themselves more by treating themselves and their bodies better, by listening to their inner voice.
“Look back and understand where your belief came from about yourself because for me, once I started to understand and think ‘Why do I have this view about myself?’ I could sort of unravel and speak to the voices inside my head that said ‘You’ve got a bit of this or that, or you don’t look like them’. Once I could hear myself and my own self-talk, then I could start turning it around. So listen to how you talk to yourself, and think to yourself, would you talk to your friend like that? Because if you wouldn’t, why are you talking to yourself like that?”
We chat more with Lisa…
Name: Lisa Samantha Jones
Age: 44
Occupation: Pilates/Movement Trainer & Educator
Nationality: British
Height: 168cm
What was your first running competition?
It was in 2000 – the London Marathon which I finished in 5 hours 15 mins which is slow in comparison to now. My parents watched me and I remember them asking ‘Would you ever run a marathon again?’ I went ‘NO! Never!’ But obviously I went on to do the Sundown Marathon in 2009 and I’ve done two Ironmans.
What’s your current personal best?
3 hours 48 mins at the 2009 Sundown Marathon. My best Ironman was 3 hours 58 mins (for the marathon only). The whole race was 11 hours 51 mins.
Could you tell us more about your body image struggles?
When you work in a profession that you’re up at the front teaching lessons or Pilates, there is this certain look that people expect. So it was always the case of ‘Do I look good enough? Do I look like the part? Am I a role model to people? Am I not?’
I tried lots of diets and different ways to eat throughout the years – vegetarian, vegan, paleo, blood type. I tried most of them just to see if something sat with me. I had massive issues with sugar for quite a lot of years; as in serious, serious binges which are emotionally-related, not necessarily anything else.
The worst binge was in 2012 when I moved back home with my parents. I remember eating so much during the day. I woke up at 4am feeling violently ill, slept on the sofa and had sweats on all the time. I was disgusted with myself and I said the next day to my mum, ‘I think I have a real serious problem with this’.
I grew up in a household where chocolate is the thing you do to come together to have love, to say well done. A dessert was the treat you got after you finished your meal, so sugar was a big reward thing. The ability to eat one cube of chocolate is not in my mentality – it’s the bar. If the bar is 250g, I’ll eat the 250g.
Currently do you still struggle with your body image?
I want to say no, but sometimes I look at people and I find myself comparing myself to them. It’s not that I want a six-pack but I look at them and go, ‘I could get that!’ and just as quickly go, ‘Do I really want to look like that?’ I’m learning to love my body, whatever shape it is, and appreciate what I can do from an athletic perspective.
When you do triathlons and you’re good at them, you’re hanging around a lot of fit people and you can’t help but compare, because you look at someone and they look like this and that, and you go, ‘Do I look like that? Do I look fit? Do I belong here?’ Even if you can do the times, you still question whether you belong for your physical look, but I’ve learnt to look past that.
What does body image mean to you?
I think as long as someone is fit and healthy, and has a good attitude towards themselves and the way they move and the food that they eat, that’s way more important regardless of anything else. I do believe that you can still be what the world would say as ‘a little bit on the large side’ and be healthy, which would be better than looking good and have a really bad attitude towards yourself.
So body image is not just about your body, it’s also about your mental image of yourself.
Has anyone made comments about your body that have set you back?
As an athlete, I’ve gotten people saying, ‘Yeah if you lean down a bit…’. My mum is always going ‘You have to stay slim when you grow older’, since I was a kid and my dad was also criticising women for always letting themselves grow big and overweight, so there was always a little bit of a stigma in my family about being overweight.
What do you think of Rock The Naked Truth?
I think it’s a great thing to get women out there talking about how they view themselves because what I’ve realised is that most of us, not just women, have image problems and I put most of that down to social media which touts women as these perfect bodies. I think it’s amazing as it’s a space that people can talk in safety.
Is there any message you want to spread to others out there?
Don’t judge each other! Women tend to judge each other. If your immediate reaction is to look at someone and pass criticism, change it. Find a compliment to say about that person instead, because the more we do it to each other, the worse it gets.
