Do you view progress in a mirror or a scale? It is easy to shame ourselves by stepping on a scale or looking up close at all the ways we wish our bodies were better. What if we truly started believing that being healthy has less to do with how we look and more to do with how we feel?
There have been many times I have gone on diets & worked out excessively to try to reach perfection and perfection never came. I think there is a time and a place for diets and exercising more than usual for training or loosing weight, but it should also come with a warning label saying DANGER: THIS MAY BE ADDICTIVE AND LEAD TO UNHEALTHY LIFE PATTERNS.
The lowest point in my journey came when after going through a life threatening illness I finally saw my body as skinny as I had always wanted, except it wasn't at all how I pictured it. My thighs finally did that miraculous thing of not touching and I had to get all new pants because of how frail I was. It was disturbing that I had no muscle, and essentially looked like a skeleton. The very thing I had always wanted to attain I realized could only be attainable if I get so sick that I was skin and bones.
Everyone was created uniquely, and our bodies will look different. I am all for being fit and healthy, but for the people like me who would have to spend hours at the gym every day and cut calories so much to get a chiseled body and still fall short there should be a point where we say enough is enough. If appearance is the goal, we will always fall short. There will always be something more we desire when we reach that goal and find its not good enough.
What if we listened to our bodies more, worked with the bodies we have and not try so hard to change them. What if we viewed our bodies to be useful not just for training to look a certain way but train so we can use our bodies to help others, have more stamina for playing with your kids at the park and more mental clarity to work and study to the best of our abilities. What if we gave our bodies the rests they need on days where we normally push them in order to see better results.
Next time we look in the mirror to judge our health lets not forget to examine the other part of us that can't be judged by a mirror.
