The health & fitness world isn’t the clean and happy place it’s made out to be.  It can be a dark place full of extremism, obsession, frustration and heartache.  There’s a lot of heartache.

It’s not how it’s meant to be.  After all, most of us dip a toe in to improve our quality of life.  Sometimes it works out.  Often it doesn’t.  Today I offer one reason why…

Image: flickr.com

What does health and fitness mean for you?

For some it’s about how they look.  It’s weight loss, fat loss, the latest diet, and the best physique.  It’s slim or toned or cut or jacked.  Others just want to be healthy.  Keep the heart ticking on.  Avoid disease.  Live long.  Feel happy.  Then there’s the sports fans.  It’s about performance.  On the pitch, on the climbing wall, in the next marathon or 10k.

Each of these represents a worthy goal.  To look good.  To feel good.  To perform well.  There isn’t one of these that is somehow more honourable than another.  The problem is when we focus on one at the exclusion of the others.  That’s when we’re most likely to venture down the dark alleyways of health & fitness.

What’s the problem?

Many of us, in our desperation to fit appearance ideals, become obsessed with our body image.  We restrict foods we fear will make us fat.  Inevitably we binge.  We get uptight at social situations that might ‘ruin’ our diet.  We become estranged from our friends.  Alienated.  Maybe we turn to magic supplements or cosmetic surgery to ‘strip away the fat’.  Even if success arrives (does it ever?) that super-low body fat level might cost us our energy or our sex drive.  Did we improve our quality of life?

Focussing too much on health or longevity can also be problematic.  We’re susceptible to fall for dietary dogmas like veganism, or paleo.  Or we become orthorexic, swearing only to eat ‘clean’ foods.  We become neurotic about toxins and a sucker for cleanses.  Or juicing.  Everything becomes a stress.  Did we improve our quality of life?

Performance is the same.  Sport hurts.  It isn’t necessarily healthy.  Obsessive overtraining, “no days off!”  Playing through injuries.  Sacrificing our body.  Did we improve our quality of life?

Is it necessary?

If the way you look pays the mortgage, or your sporting performance earns you a life-changing contract, some narrow-mindedness is understandable.  For most of us, however, this isn’t the case.  As serious as I was about football, none of my contracts made a big enough dent in my bills to justify the number of times I played hurt.

As passionate as we are about sport or health & fitness, the point is to improve our quality of life.  For most of us, that means balance.  It means to look, feel and perform well.  It means making peace with our body image, being content when we look in the mirror.  It means eating well without being unnecessarily restrictive.

It means feeling good.  Having a sense of wellbeing.  Understanding the importance of sleep and time in nature without being a freak about it.  It means recognising the role community and social connection plays in our longevity.

It also means the ability to perform in life.  To move well.  To be strong yet supple, capable in the activities we do in life and for fun.  Without destroying our body or pretending we’re in the Marines.

It means improving our quality of life.

BIG IDEA: Many people get into health & fitness to improve the quality of their life …only to fall victim to extremism, obsession, frustration and heartache.

TAKEAWAY: Aim for balance.  Aim to look, feel and perform well.  Don’t sacrifice one for the others.

ACTION STEP: Want to read more?  Check out my book, Energy Is Everything: Mindset, Nutrition and Exercise for the best version of you.  It’s available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.

Always Keep Reaching!

Mike