When it comes to health and fitness and the fact that I am
36, I have been through a lot of phases; some physical, some mental, some emotional, some good, and some not so good. I have seen diet fads come and go, I have gone from using workout tapes to downloading workouts online, from aerobics to weight lifting. As the fads come and go, one thing I have noticed that doesn’t seem to change, is the pressure in the fitness world to look a certain way. The pressure I put on myself to look a certain way. A way of life that was a constant teeter
totter between healthy and obsessive. I
was miserable and I needed a new mindset, a healthy mindset…
The science behind exercise has come a long way. A lot has been learned about resistance
training, its benefits, how important cardio is, the proper ways to gain
flexibility and gain speed so on and so forth. Now days with the right knowledge
it is easier than ever to try to try to manipulate your body to get a certain
look.
I have learned over the years though that NO matter how much
you try, if you don’t appreciate your body no matter how much you manipulate it,
you won’t be happy with it. You can get caught up thinking someone else’s “perfect
body” and striving to look like them. But that is dangerous since we cannot
manipulate the body outside of its natural structure and makeup. Sure, you can
build your biceps and more muscles, you can slim and shape your body, but to some
extent your body is what it is in the terms of how your body is built: your
body height, bone structure, etc. Your
body is built differently than mine, and mine is built differently than the
next person’s body. The way our bodies function is very similar, but your chemical
makeup may be slightly different than mine. No two bodies are alike, so I think
its dangerous to look at someone else is body and wish and work hard to try to
manipulate your body to look like someone there’s. Instead of trying to manipulate our bodies by
focusing on our weight (which fluctuates no matter what you do!) or by the size
of your clothes…. when we exercise our focus should be to appreciate our bodies
and all its capabilities. We must change our mindset from manipulation to appreciation.
One of the most important factors for someone to reach any
goal is their why. Why are you striving for this goal? If you are striving to
lose weight, why? If you want to build muscle why? If you want to be healthier,
why?
If your why or your answer is superficial, when the going
gets tough you won’t keep going. When your why is something you can’t truly obtain,
ie “a perfect body” You will feel defeated no matter how much work you do. I am
speaking form experience. In the natural when you look in the mirror you will
not look photoshopped…no matter how much I hope to. It can be a letdown and be
a distraction on the path of true health and happiness. So, when your goal is to just look a certain
way, you may find it’s not that easy and you are truly never satisfied.
The Lord has helped me gain healing in this area. With a renewed
mind I have learned that my why must be deeper than my looks. I needed a reason
that was bigger than me.
When your why is something deep then when you want to give
up it will motivate you to keep going. It is time to get past the superficial
and not think just about how you look, instead start thinking about how you
would feel if you were healthier? What would that do for your daily tasks of
life? How would you being healthier be better for your family? How could having
self-confidence help you fulfill your dream?
Think about the benefits of good health, better breathing, better sleep,
hormone balance, less inflammation, muscle alignments, less body aches and
pains the list goes on and on.
It is easy to get caught up in working out to look a certain
way, but it is dangerous. With an obsessive attitude maintaining my weight was
my hobby for many many years. I was neither truly happy nor was I truly
healthy, even though I looked like I was. I was not treating my body like a temple,
rather like a garbage can.
With the healing of the Lord I have learned to appreciate my
body. I am learning more and more every day how to implement better health choices
without strain. I want to be able to make changes I can maintain naturally and
organically. So, for me I have found that by thinking about how amazing my body
is and all that it can do. By digging deeper and getting educated about how my
body works and functions, how eating certain foods has certain effects on me,
that has been the most motivating factor in being able to truly want to apply
and maintain change. By appreciating my body, my lungs, my heart, my skeleton
and neurological systems, and my gut health it has changed my perspective on my
body. I see it as a gift from God, a temple of the Holy Spirit, an amazing
asset to me. I see it as an incredible tool that I have access to and that is
my job to maintain. I think of each system as a system that needs and wants to
be trained so that my body can operate as one smooth system.
I realize now that exercise and diet negatively defined me
for a good portion of my life. If I didn’t work out, I wasn’t happy, it
tortured me. If I weighed too much on the scale, I didn’t need to drink water
that day. If I ate too much, I had to work
out twice as hard. I lived and breathed by my obsessive habit. And I was miserable.
I have stopped trying to manipulate my body. And I stopped
being obsessive. I don’t use a scale or take body measurements often. I don’t
think about what size I am. One truth is I have broad shoulders and I am more comfortable
in large shirts. There used to be a time I would squeeze into a M or S even
just because of the size it was. Now I am real with myself and I feel comfortable
in my clothing no matter the size. Since my clothes fit better, they are more
flattering.
I have learned to
love my body the way that it is, no matter what phase of life it is in. I now work on being stronger, faster, the capability
to take in more oxygen, the ability to do 10 pushups on my toes, run 1 mile
comfortably, not punish myself when I over indulge or don’t workout for 3 days…because
it does happen. I want to have a healthy
mindset and a healthy lifestyle that allows for balance in all areas. I want to
live with intention but when life gets in the way I don’t want to lose my joy
or think I have messed up somehow. Instead when life happens, I don’t beat
myself up, I encourage myself. I pick up where I left off, and just keep moving
forward!
Changing my mindset from manipulation to appreciation has
been freeing. While I am still a work in progress, I know I am not where I was
and I am on a path now, where I want to be going. I am truly happy, and my setbacks don’t derail
me like they once did. And to me that is what true health and happiness is all
about! Living a healthy lifestyle that I can easily and simply maintain while
creating confidence and living my best life naturally and organically!!
