Health is not a priority it is a value. It is not something however that can be sold and peddled as something external to who you are.
It is important to understand your outer is an expression of your inner. Not the other way around.
Love yourself first and foremost. Whatever version of yourself that is, it doesn’t matter, you need to love yourself. Throw away all the oppressive imagery and rubbish from so-called “Health & Fitness” magazines and supposed topless gurus.
If you start to understand the power and beauty of your own body then you’ll start to nourish it, not “Diet”.
You won’t exercise to punish yourself for the pizza and beers you had on Friday night, you’ll do it because it positively impacts everything else in your life. That one hour of exercise in the gym, in the park or at home in the garage should make the other 23 hours in your day better. So many of us view the gym as some form of self-flagellation for the awful sins we’ve committed. A place where we MUST go to knock the insecurities out of ourselves.
Please, please, please STOP thinking this way.
One bad meal doesn’t make you unhealthy the same way one healthy meal won’t make you healthy. Stop looking for a silver bullet, it doesn’t exist.
Nowadays it seems we are all looking for that instant gratification without realising that it is the journey, not the product which makes you. Yes, that is a corny, well-worn line, but it is absolutely the truth.
No shake, pill or ridiculous machine off of TV shopping is going to make you fit and healthy. Don’t buy that rubbish and feed the ugly beast that is living off these insecurities.
We love Instagram, but it houses some of the biggest problems here. Transformation photos and those “impromptu” beach snaps are inspirational for sure but none of it sits comfortably.
What do these pictures actually say?
Much like the utopia that exists with looking through the lens of social media we don’t get any sense of what’s real.
I went to a favorite comedian of mine recently. David O’ Doherty proposed that to pay penance for all the #bliss #blessed and #mylifeisamazing posts we put on Facebook etc., we should take a photo of our own fecal matter once a month to balance the perspective! Maybe a bit extreme, but social media can be really really misleading so don’t take everything you see on there at face value.
Lately, I’ve noticed even more “before and after”/transformation pics online, again, these can be a hugely motivating and positive thing, but often you will see something written beneath claiming: “Making improvements, but still want more definition” etc. etc.
Rarely do you see someone write: “I think I look better on the outside, but on the inside I feel a million times better, I’m happier in my own skin, I don’t get down on myself over trivial things and I’m better able to live my life doing stuff like playing with the kids, or going for a walk and a coffee with a good friend.”
The number on the scales or the ‘points’ you’ve consumed today is not going to make you happy tomorrow. Playing a game of football with your kids or taking a bike ride around a beautiful park will. Being able to wipe your own ass at 80 will. These are the things that really matter, everything else is really just the by-product.
We need to listen to our bodies and stop watching everyone else’s.
At Activate, we do things differently and look at health & fitness differently. We love what we do, we love seeing people achieve and recognize their own beauty, their own best version of themselves.
So be you, love you and learn to live in your own skin.
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