....A healthy mindset.
I know this likely wasn’t what you were expecting to read, but it is 100% the truth and I am going to tell you why.
In a world where technological advances are used to make our lives easier, it’s no wonder that many of us have long been searching for the easy way to lose weight and get fit; we buy supplements, diet pills, expensive protein shakes, we join Jenny Craig and sign up for meal services that cost more than a pretty penny – all in an effort to find the end-all-be-all trick to getting the perfect body that we have always dreamed of.
And yet, all along, we didn’t realize that there were never really any tricks, not when it comes down to being healthy and happy.
Sure, supplements can help and so can weight loss programs, but the fact of the matter is that these things aren’t promised to fix what the issue really is: your mind. People become overweight and underweight for a reason, and unless they’re suffering from some kind of disease, the main cause is mental illness. From BED to anorexia and bulimia nervosa, people form unhealthy relationships with food and subsequently find themselves in a poor state of health, often forever searching for the fastest, easiest way to get the body they want quick rather than addressing that the primary issue is on the inside.
People have both gotten lazy and completely ignorant: long has mental illness been belittled and chocked up to being nothing more than some meager, explainable issue that is easy to brush off of one’s shoulder, while we ourselves have become lazy by not only refusing to address these issues but also by looking for a quick-fix to try and remedy the SIDE EFFECTS of the actual problem. So we’ll shame ourselves and each other, pop pills, restrict our food – all until we’re completely obsessed with faster and faster results. What inevitably do you think happens? Well, many things: You can become depressed, sick, underweight or even run the risk of further health issues and possibly even death. Or, on the flipside, you become tired of your overly strict regiment and you simply give up.
This is why I say that no one should begin any kind of journey to health without addressing their mental state first: if your only desire is to be thin with little to no concern for your actual health, you are not ready. You need to work those issues out before you begin anything, unless your life is being threatened by your weight. And if that’s the case, you need to do this with proper medical supervision – that means regular check ups with your doctor.
The reason I am saying all of this is because I have lived it, and watched many other people live it: the desire to look how we are “supposed to”, this silly ideal that we all have a factory default that makes up the "proper" (cough, cough: idealistic) man and woman. Women should be thin with a voluptuous bust, butt and hips; men are supposed to be tall and muscular. But the truth is, is that if we were SUPPOSED to look this way, more of us would. If you want to look this way, it either takes a lot of work, amazing genetics or surgery to get there. Yet we delude ourselves by buying into what we see and hear all while being deprived of the proper information that could stop us from going on a self-destructive path to looking like an unrealistic idea of attractiveness.
What we should be doing is addressing the fact that health is skin deep and below the surface; we need a healthy mind and healthy body to truly reach the peak of ideology because without either one of these things, the other would only be so satisfying. What’s the point of being “perfect” if on the inside you’re utterly miserable? What’s the point of not caring if you won’t live long enough to experience true happiness?
Is this making sense to anyone yet?
Health should be our objective; for one moment, forget bulging biceps and perfect asses; forget how many dudes will try to snapchat you and toss aside the fantasies of women throwing themselves at your feet. Focus on the bigger picture: being a person who is in good health, who is happy, stable and functional, who can live a great live without ever having to stress about being perfect or being that much closer to death.
Which truly sounds better to you?
To conclude, don’t ever treat weight loss or fitness like a beauty pageant; it’s a lot more than that: it’s an opportunity to improve your health through soul searching and a lot of hard work, mentally and physically. It requires you to get your head in the right place so you can make the choices that are actually going to benefit you, not the choices that are just going to give you the quickest results. The fact of the matter is, is that if you have a healthy mindset, you are not only more likely to succeed, but you are more likely to keep a legacy going of making the right choices and having long lasting results.
That’s all I really have to say on the matter. Enjoy your two-for-one folks. Have a great day.
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