Guest Post: New Dawn Fitness
Perspective is a way of looking at things in relation to other things and we find that having it is a crucial component of success.
It’s believed that humans have been on this earth for around 200,000 years. So with an average life span of 79 years, our little share of the time on this planet will be roughly .0004, a mere blip. We are only here for a short time and I want to focus on how you want to spend your blip on this earth and how perspective factors into it.
There are two main schools of thought on this one.
- The first can be summed up by the quote of an unknown author, “The purpose of life is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to slide in sideways, totally worn out, shouting, holy shit, what a ride!” I’m familiar with that style, as it is how I spent my twenties.
- The other school of thought is to respect the body as a temple and deny yourself the pleasures that can tear it down and lead to ill health, so that you are healthy throughout your life.
Neither are inherently wrong, but I propose that with a little perspective you can have both.
The problem is in order to have both, there has to be some denying of pleasures, self control, and a psychological value placed on the process of getting healthy. This needs to happen on the front end and periodically throughout in order to establish a level of health that can be maintained for life while still enjoying periodic indulgences.
We have been fed (literally) false information for the better part of the last 40 years and our health has suffered because of it. Advances in medicine and treatment have made us accustomed to instant fixes to what ever problems we have and we do not realize that these solutions are only masking symptoms of bigger problems that take time and effort to fix.
Our perspective has been shaped to think in terms of instant gratification, this is why people keep going back to Medifast, Weight Watchers, or any other gimmick the billion dollar diet industry has to offer. They are effective in helping you quickly lose those first thirty pounds, but less effective in changing your perspective on health and why it’s important to lose those thirty pounds. This is why as soon as you go off, the thirty pounds, or more, come right back.
A perspective of caring for what goes into your body as fuel for all of your bodies processes makes you think twice before heading back to that donut box in the lounge at work, or stopping off for fast food again instead of making a healthy dinner.
A perspective where you realize that you have control over your own health and are not some kind of victim of genetics or heridity will also help you make better daily decisions that will improve your health. Understand that it took years for your current body shape and health problems to form and they will not be cured overnight with some quick fix.
A perspective where you understand that getting healthy is a process over time, but this process is made up of several small decisions that you make each day. These small decisions about what you are going to eat, how you are going to move, and how you are going to rest add up quickly and work to either make you more healthy or less healthy.
Sick, fat, and tired is no way to spend your blip here on this earth and a shift to a more healthy lifestyle is not a race to be won. It is a gradual process of small decisions made after a big change in perspective.