A Healthy Respect

 

“Is ‘fat’ really the worst thing a human being can be?  Is ‘fat’ worse than ‘vindictive’, ‘jealous’, ‘shallow’, ‘vain’, ‘boring’ or ‘cruel’?  Not to me.”

-J.K. Rowling

Our bodies are pretty interesting.  They are comprised of trillions, no seriously, TRILLIONS of cells (that’s a 1 with twelve 0’s, mind you. TWELVE!).  Every cell is responsible for carrying out some sort of process that makes our living, breathing, eating, laughing, thinking, and sleeping possible.  Our hearts beat inside our chests without having to be reminded – it just does its job (like a boss).  Our stomach and intestines are constantly working to digest the food we eat, without stopping to say, “Well, you just ate a sandwich an hour ago, so I’m kind of tired and don’t feel like breaking down that cupcake you just swallowed in less than five minutes.”  (Not that I’m speaking from experience here…)

You get the point.  Our bodies work 24/7/365 for us.  We pay back the favor through the little things – exercising, eating nourishing foods, getting enough sleep, making time for socializing and other forms of play, and engaging our minds in meaningful activities.

But we do a major disservice to our bodies when we toss around the F-word.  You know the F-word that I’m talking about.

“Fat.”  Or really, any word that causes the indignity of valuing ourselves based solely on our appearance (e.g., skinny, pale, rail-thin, linebacker shoulders, muffin-top, and other charming/demeaning phrases.)

Don’t get me wrong – there is a place for medical indices of health, such as the measurement of body fat percentage – for the purpose of creating a plan to improve health if necessary.

But beyond that – what do we accomplish by labeling ourselves based on how we look, and then measuring our worth accordingly?

What about all of those incredible, perfectly-synchronized tasks our bodies do to keep us alive and kicking each day, all while asking for very little in return?  Why would we disrespect and punish such an efficient and hardworking machine?

Let’s assume we are doing our best to live a healthy life.  We are exercising as much as we can, eating relatively healthy foods (with room for the occasional indulgence – since extreme eating tends not to be a successful long-term strategy), and getting enough sleep/play/activity.

What more can we ask for?  We are striving for good health and taking care of our bodies.  As long as we put our overall health and well-being first, then appearance and other secondary issues will fall into their natural places.

In fact, maybe we could even go a step further based on Ms. Rowling’s suggestion.  Perhaps we could re-direct our energies from bad-mouthing our appearance, toward cultivating inner qualities like kindness, generosity, intelligence, open-mindedness, courage, and bravery.

Besides, at the end of the day, I’m thinking those qualities will make the world far more interesting than whether or not my jeans hide my muffin top.

 

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