HEALTH

What is it and how do you define it?

For so long I believed health came in one body shape and one body size. I believed that the image of health was an athletic physique, with a nipped in waist, a peachy bum and super toned legs. I worked so hard to make my body fit into this box. Through being so determined to be 'healthy' I took away some of life's greatest pleasures. Who wants to date the girl whose first priority is never to miss a work out and whose second is to only eat things relating to her self prescribed diet plan? Life stopped being fun, but I was healthy right?

Recently my attitude towards fitness, food and my general idea of health has changed. I have come to realise that it is not a one size fits. In fact I have come to the conclusion that it is totally subjective and means different things to different people. Physical health should never come at the detriment of mental health, weight is not the only marker for health, we should have the freedom to choose what what we want to eat and not feel judged for those decisions. There are so many more variables to attaining good health than just what you eat and how much you exercise. Things such as sleep, stress, connections with others and with nature.

Today I am more focused on how I feel over how I look. Most of the time when I was over training I was exhausted, irritable and a pretty unpleasant person to be around. I want to wake up and enjoy my days, I want to find pleasure in food, in movement in being active without obligation. I find it sad when I see people who are so focused on their physique they forget to have a life, I guess this affects me maybe more than others because I was that girl for such a long time, and I sympathise because it is so easy to buy into all the other 'advice' and 'motivation' out there. Truth is companies don't make money off people who are happy in their bodies, they make money selling us products to fix our 'flaws'.

One on my main goals for the rest of this year is to be mindful of who and what I let influence me, how I respond to external pressures and how grounded I can remain when it comes to my own health, not what I and everyone else thinks health should be.