Fitness in Focus

[fitnessinfocus-blog]

Being Healthy... Sucks.

I’m done beating around the bush: being healthy sucks.

Meal prep is time-consuming, supplements are expensive (or so I’ve heard) and staring at yourself — under fluorescent lighting — while sweat trickles down into your cleavage isn’t terribly glamorous. That’s all right though because it’s the terribly “un-glamorous” that I’m going for.

I’m debuting this blog as “How-To-Relate-To” instead of a “How-To” guide, for the girl (or anyone) who is so desperately trying to be the best version of herself. I’ve scanned the internet for Instagram accounts, and Tumblrs that depict what the life of an average exercise-doer is like, but it’s harder than it seems. All too often a self-proclaimed health blogger will post about how her “teatox” worked wonders on her, leaving her followers shitting their pants at work with little, if not no results. If only being healthy were as simple* as a 10-day lemon juice cleanse. What I’m trying to get at is that being fit isn’t easy; like I said before: it fucking sucks.

Pro Tip: Don’t do a juice cleanse. Millions of years of human evolution didn’t yield you a liver and kidneys for nothing!

Being Fit/ Healthy Isn’t:

Matching your sneakers to your sports-bra and magically losing 10 lbs of body fat.

Waking up at 5:30am and making a Gwyneth Paltrow super smoothie before gleefully dodging predators on your morning run.

10 000 likes on an Instagram photo that highlights the model’s surgically implanted assets.

Romanticizing eating disorders.

Avoiding products which contain gluten because it’s trendy, not because you have a sensitivity/ Celiac disease.

Being Fit/ Healthy Is:

Making the best out of whatever exercise routine you can fathom during the work week.

Setting your alarm for 5:30am, sleeping through it, and telling yourself you’ll try again tomorrow (and maybe eventually doing it).

Understanding that food is fuel and that in order to keep yourself going all day, you’ll need more than a lemon wedge and cayenne pepper.

Maintaining a healthy body weight for your activity level and height; everyone’s different, and everyone has something that works for them.

Making healthier choices whenever possible.

Working out is hard. Motivating yourself is also hard. Balancing your diet, exercise, work, social life, downtime, and wine consumption is all very hard.

So remember this: despite how enthusiastic stock-photo women seem to be about group fitness classes, there’s no Nike collection that will make the second (or first) half of your workout glamorous.

*I had originally used the word “easy”, but let’s face it: not eating for 10-days is probably the most difficult, and nonsense thing that someone could ever put herself through.