Your Health: Goals, Disappointment, and Forgiveness

Well, it's Black Friday...a day for shopping and digesting.  If you're like me, you may be feeling a bit of the "why did I eat all that pie?" tummy doldrums.  Today is like an annual walk-of-shame after a day of near-painful gluttony.  It can be tough to fight the urge to step on the scale and assess the damage or to give yourself some leeway if you're out trying on clothes in the madness of shopping today's sales.  So let's all spend a minute taking a couple deep breaths and letting go of all that emotion.  Yesterday was great, wasn't it?  You got to see your family and friends.  You got the day off work.  You took some time to nourish your soul.  You also got to enjoy some great food!  There is no reason to feel guilty for the indulgence.

I'd like to start a discussion on why we put so much emotion into our eating, our fitness, our lifestyle.  It seems like each of these areas has become yet another arena in which we can Fail.  And Failure is inevitable because we set perfection as our goal.  And when we believe we have Failed, it becomes another opportunity to feel Less.  But really, food, fitness and lifestyle should be opportunities to feel good about who we are and to allow ourselves the freedom to experience new things.  Not being perfect should be an opportunity to practice forgiving ourselves.

I'll try to recruit your input for a series of posts about these issues.

I want to talk about #Fitspiration.  I want to talk about health and fitness magazines who employ fitness models with 10% body fat.  I want to talk about how we've moved from idealizing bodies that look like Kate Moss to trying to emulate bodies that look like they never take a day off from the gym.  I want to talk about the promotion of total self-control and junk-food abstinence as some kind of ultimate virtue.  And most importantly I want to listen to what you have to say about striving for health in today's "Health & Fitness" environment.

Really? Still looks like <15% body fat to me...

I'm sure this reflects a totally, 100% healthy attitude about fitness...

If you don't see any harm in the above, I encourage you to read this post.

Now, for those of you who are interested in joining me for 21 days of breaking the sugar habit and exploring new and exciting workouts - keep an eye out for a post tomorrow that'll walk you through some necessary prep!

Go enjoy your leftovers :-)
bgt