DIG DEEPER
I noticed one thing when I jumped into the health and fitness industry: everything is about the body image. All of the health and fitness magazines that you see boast photoshopped men and women with cut abs and defined muscles. Headlines promote new fad diets or exercises that promise to help you drop 10lbs in a week or give you a bikini body in time for the summer. That’s great and all, but have you noticed that no one promotes working out or eating healthier just because it’s better for you? When someone tries to sell you a personal training session, gym membership, meal prep subscription, or weight loss book, they always make sure to tell you what your body will look like, but they rarely emphasize that eating better and exercising is just plain good for you. We live in a culture that promotes tiny waists and defined abs. It’s all about body image. Health has become the runner-up. What if we stopped trying to get a different body by forcing ourselves to “be healthy” and simply started to move more and fuel better for the sake of our health and longevity? I think we’d all find ourselves a lot happier in mind, body, and spirit.
Let’s talk a little bit about body shaming. We’re pretty great at it, aren’t we? We look at ourselves in the mirror and tear apart our love handles. We tell ourselves we’re too fat. We think our butt looks awful in those jeans. We believe our arms are too flabby to wear a tank top. And the list goes on! We convince ourselves that our body is shameful and become wildly insecure in our own skin. This is what the health and fitness industry feeds on. They know that you hate your body and wish you would look different, so they market products and services that promise quick-fixes. Health runs deeper than a juice cleans and ab 6-week ab program from your favorite health and wellness magazine. Health can will prevent disease, prolong your life, diminish anxiety, give you a better night’s sleep, increase energy, make you stronger, and the list goes on. These benefits far outweigh the shedding of a few pounds! Let’s stop saying we want to eat better and workout more just to lose weight. If that’s your only goal your commitment won’t last because those are results are fleeting and have expiration dates. They’re great to include in your goal list, but they shouldn’t be the main reason to eat a salad for lunch. I set weight loss goals too, but we have to dig a little deeper and find the lasting reason for pursuing a healthy life. If we don’t, we’ll eventually stop making it to the gym and start making poor nutrition choices because our “why” isn’t rooted deep enough. Start with “why”.
Why is this so important? The whole reason that I decided to start working out and to teach myself about nutrition was because I was insecure in my body. I felt overweight and never liked myself in a bathing suit. I would look at other women and instantly think they were way skinnier, stronger, and prettier than me. I forced myself to eat salads, restrict my calories, and work out 6 days a week, even when my body was failing to keep up. I developed discipline and gained a lot of knowledge, but I restricted so heavily that my body’s normal functions were disrupted. I lost my period, I was irritable, I developed anxiety when I had to go out to eat, worried I would overeat, and eventually developed a binge-eating disorder from restricting for so long. I was so focused on getting smaller that everything else seemed to go haywire. My mind wasn’t healthy and neither was my body, even though I was physically tiny. After the restrict / binge cycle began, I quickly gained all of my weight back and more. This is why it’s crucial to choose why it’s important to you to pursue a healthy lifestyle and commit to a regimen that’s sustainable and non-restrictive.
both “before and afters” of my nutrition and training journey. Top left: fall 2015, Top right: spring 2017, Bottom left: summer 2020, Bottom right: winter 2022
This mindset is huge. It determines your commitment and longevity. It changes how you think about yourself. There’s time when I might be 5-10lbs heavier than I’d like, but when I know that I’m making good and consistent choices for the sake of my overall health and wellbeing, I can still be confident in my body. If you are feeling insecure about your body and want to lose some weight, I want to encourage you to find your deeper reason: to live longer, to reduce risk of disease, to reduce stress, or to keep up with your kids. Keep your weight loss goals, because those are important short-term goals! But you need long-term goals to keep your work grounded in something bigger than yourself. When you reach outside the lines of body image, you are reaching beyond yourself.
Being able to see more than a body image is what makes health and fitness a life changing thing. But how often do we fail to tap into the bigger picture? I want to challenge you to find a deeper meaning to health. Answer these questions before you go to the gym or make yourself a snack:
Why am I choosing this lifestyle for myself?
How is this lifestyle affecting my life now?
How will this lifestyle affect my life for years to come?
Am I happy with this lifestyle?
Let’s seek the lifestyles that will lead to longevity for ourselves, our current families, and our future families. I would love to help you discover your “why” and coach you along the path of good nutrition and sustainable fitness by setting up a time to talk through your goals and creating a personalized nutrition guide and workout program just for you! Go to my training page to begin the conversation and I will follow-up with you shortly. Let’s create and crush your goals together!
— K