A while ago, I read the following on somebody’s Twitter or blog. I cannot remember exactly where I read it, so I am paraphrasing.
Living healthily is a full-time job. I wish I got paid for it.
That line stuck with me because I absolutely disagree with it. Or rather, I feel that if living healthily is genuinely like a full-time job for you, you are doing something wrong.
Now, I realize there is a certain irony in my saying this when I have a whole blog dedicated to living healthily, but I’m still saying it. Before I go on, I want to say that this is merely my opinion and I am not directing this post at anyone specifically. This is just my opinion, and you are free to disagree and live your life as you like.
I do believe that if you really want to live healthily, you have to put in some effort. You have to take the time to shop for healthy food, cook it and you have to take the time for working out. But I do not think that it should be taking up your whole life.
I often feel that when we (those in the weight loss blogging community) decide to turn our lives around, it starts revolving about living healthily, eating healthy food, and working out. Now, to a certain point this is probably needed because we need to make an effort to make this life style change. It doesn’t come as naturally as it does to those who have always lived like this.
But, is being obsessed with working out and healthy food really so much better than being obsessed with, well, not working out and unhealthy food? I don’t think so. I think that either extreme is not really all that healthy. In my opinion, we do have to put in an effort, we do have to focus our lives on living healthily, but only to a certain degree.
There is so much more to life than food (healthy or not) and working out, and when you make this your full-time job, you are neglecting other parts of your life. I think the healthiest way of living healthily is just doing it. When it becomes a natural part of your life to spend some time cooking and working out but your whole life doesn’t revolve around it, that is when you’ve gotten to the point when you have really changed your life style. I believe that’s how most thin people do it. They do not constantly think about what they should be eating, how many calories they should be burning in a workout. They simply eat right and work out some without spending the entire day thinking about it, it’s just normal. Of course there are exceptions but I don’t know if those should be our models for who we aspire to be like. I personally want to get to a point where I just do things right and feel great while I’m doing it. I want living healthily to be normal, not special, not anything I need to focus on. I want it to become a habit, part of a routine, second nature. Effortless.
I think moderation is really the keyword for just about anything in life. And it is so easy to over-do it, either way. I think that by focusing your entire energy on living healthily, on losing weight, on working out, etc., you are setting yourself up for a disappointment, because you cannot keep that up for the rest of your life without missing out on so many other things. I can only speak for myself but when living healthily is consuming your life to a point where it is essentially a full-time job, I think it’s time to remember everything else that is important in life.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you feel like living healthily is a full-time job? Should it be?
I completely agree with what you said about that losing weight or living healthily shouldn’t be a full-time job. I’ve tried the full-time route and I’m still doing it, and as a result most of my time at college has revolved around it and I’m really close to a point where I’m simply going to LOSE IT if I have to spend another day thinking about calories. On the other hand, for me personally, all I ever knew before the sort of state I’m in now was thinking about how fat I was and how bad I felt about my body – and as a consequence I never left the house and *also* missed out on a ton of stuff in high school. – Which, of course, proves your point that focusing *exclusively* on weight and health and body image – no matter in what way – can have a pretty severe impact on your life, and not in a good way.
I know that I lost weight when I had a lot of “positive stress” in my life and was happiest – which was during my year in Kentucky and my six months in Sweden. I just lived life and there were so many new things that I was constantly nervous or excited about, and I didn’t really have to time to think about food. And – this is crucial – I was always busy running around somewhere. So I lost some weight and felt more healthy very naturally.
Whenever I get back to my same old routine, sadly, at least for me personally, that sort of state of mind just can’t be forced and I eat more, out of boredom and frustration and unhappiness, and do less natural exercise – and so I gain weight. And I go back to thinking about calories and fat intake and exercise every minute of the day. I agree that it’s actually quite horrible and all the deprivation and discipline and math of it all definitely reduces QUALITY OF LIFE, and I think that I’m really dancing along the edge of it being or becoming a serious eating disorder.
Everything in moderation really is the key. Somehow, I haven’t figured out how to apply the theory of it to real life, though. It feels like as soon as I decide that starting tomorrow I’ll be less strict and more “natural” about healthy living, it’s already A New Plan that I want to tweak and adjust and stick to no matter what. It’s pretty compulsive, and I wish I knew a way to relax things more without gaining weight again right away.
(I’m sorry that I always post these super long comments, I hope they’re not too annoying.
I really like this blog and your posts are always so thought-provoking!)
Not at all, I love your comments. Keep them coming! I really hope that for myself too. I need to find a more natural way to eat less and lose weight, something that is easy to stick to even when I’m stressed or tempted by candy at work etc.