Fitness - The Kind That Really Matters

As someone who has struggled with weight and body image issues for a great deal of her life, I remember always wanting to look a certain way. Every magazine or TV show was only too happy to provide a template, with screens and pages full of slim women with tiny waists, and thighs devoid of any cellulite.

And as I'm sure many young girls have done, I started to deprive my body of food. It started small, with cutting out snacks. Then I started skipping meals. Then exercising a little. Then exercising a lot. At one point, I even tried smoking because I had read somewhere that it made you lose weight.

All of this was before I turned 16.

Over a decade of self-abuse (yes, there's no better term for it) later, I finally started to understand the difference between losing weight, and getting fit. Up until then, thin = healthy. At least, it did in my mind.

But then something happened. I started falling very sick, very often. You'd think that would knock some sense into me, but you'd be wrong. What can I say, I was stupid! (shrug)

What really hit me hard was watching my grandmother age. My maternal grandmother was gorgeous, and had stayed slender all her life. 5 kids barely impacted her waistline, and even in her 70s, she was slim and beautiful.

But she walked with a cane. She needed help standing up after she had sat down. She walked with a strange mix of a limp and a shuffle, and stairs were always a challenge. Then came several heart problems. Then a stroke. She needed a home nurse all day. She couldn't do anything on her own, not even go to the bathroom. In the few years leading up to her demise, I watched this kind and amazing woman turn into a weak shell of the person she used to be.

And that hit. Hard.

It took that heartbreaking series of developments to make me realise that no matter what you look like, or how you may conform to society's definitions of 'attractive', what really matters is your health.

And I mean health in the most basic, biological, physiological and psychological ways. Being able to climb a flight of stairs, or sit & stand without assistance, and eat a largely normal diet with minimal medication -- those are the things that constitute health as you get older.

Your cardiologist or home nurse won't particularly care whether or not you had a teeny tiny waist in your youth. And osteoporosis won't back off simply because you were a bikini model in your 20s!

Ladies, start paying attention to your health, and ignore what the media tells you you ought to look like. They're not the ones who are going to be helping you walk when you're older.

Eat healthy. Live healthy. Work out. Get stronger. Be happy. <3

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