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Sick of Getting Healthy December 5, 2006

Posted by The Probabilist in : [Articles], Business, Exercise, Food, Health, Goals, Society, Personal Growth, Beliefs, Responsibility , 10 comments

I know some of you feel this way about exercising and getting or keeping in shape. When thinking about the sheer amount of advertising that goes on all the time I can’t help but wonder if this market is the biggest of all (7-15 % of GDP in most developed countries). People will try anything to make even the slightest of changes and I just can’t fathom how emotionally driven subject this can be for some people.

Just as a miniature approach to this genre I’ll separate the supply and demand into internal and external driving forces from a subjective personal standpoint. The external factors are therefore what the media spews out and how friends, peers and strangers shape the will to keep fit. Internally it’s a question of self esteem or evaluation of how one should look and how healthy one should feel.

As a link to the topic phrase, I want to share something a former colleague of mine said about trying to lose weight. She noticed that every time she decided to eat less to get in better shape and become healthier there was always somebody asking her if she’s sick. You aren’t sick now are you? Why aren’t you eating as usual?! It’s a perfect example of external mixed output. It seems it doesn’t matter if you eat plentiful or eat less than usual, it always stands the risk of being labeled as unhealthy. Or as she put it - it doesn’t matter what you do, it’s always abnormal in somebody’s eyes. So far, it seems that her internal desire is weaker than the external bombardment to make her get in better shape.

So moving on to the internal aspects of staying in shape it’s something I’m better at addressing. I find the internal realm of growth, awareness and self confidence to be a much more effective driving force to elicit change and action. I’ve managed to build quite an effective shield from external negative attacks so that they won’t interfere with my compelling intentions. However, when it comes to this particular subject I’m even to this day quite indifferent towards it, for two main reasons. Firstly, my immune system is as good as I could hope for. And secondly I’ve been underweight my whole life. So even though I do plenty of exercising, it’s mainly my diet that I haven’t paid much attention to. There will be many changes after the year end, but more on that later. What I want to emphasize is that the internal driving forces, and rightfully so, are more important when it comes to staying healthy. It’s meant to be a natural part of everyday living, so read some of my goal setting entries to help make it so.

The current book I’m reading, Blue Ocean Strategy has an excellent example of a fast-growing franchise company called Curves that I’d never heard of before. In its simplicity it offers to women the value benefits of both the traditional health clubs as well as home exercise programs. It takes the convenience, low cost, low workout time and non-threatening same-sex environment of the home exercise programs and the instructor availability and discipline encouraging environment of health clubs and on top of that, makes it a womanly fun atmosphere to be part of. No wonder the concept has spread like wildfire when it does such a great job in reducing or eliminating both external and internal drawbacks of exercising.

But whatever environment or exercise you’re planning on participating in, take baby steps. When it comes to getting in shape, the concept of overwhelming force will lead to physical agony instead of improved results. It’s the same with personal development on the mental level. It’s pointless to try become a Buddha or an Arnold Schwarzenegger with that method. But it’s important to accept your current level as it is and work from there. Arnold used both internal and external influences to make a change by exposing his big belly for others and himself to see every day. Simple is most often better than all the complex programs that overrun the media and promise easy results. Simple doesn’t make things easy, but it makes them more credible.