Health Vs Beauty

Each week my Facebook is flooded with a different girl complaining about her ill food choices and how she has utilised this new found ‘definitely not a scam or a pyramid scheme’ supplement that’s going to help her attain that beach body she so desires.

Though no one wants to invest time in looking good by actually being healthy, it’s all about looking the part. You can only get away with poor dietary choices now because youth is on your side, you’ve still got a relatively high metabolism that allows you to maintain a slimmer frame, unfortunately your frame doesn’t dictate your health and I’ve got bad news for you, your metabolism slows every year.

What I don’t understand is ; Why wouldn’t you care for your body? Most people treat it like its temporary, a host for your subconscious that you can give a good kick-in every weekend. You wouldn’t go to your home and smear your walls with caustic soda, but you’ll effectively do the same to your very own body, you know, that thing you have to live in for the entirety of your life.

An attempt to pursue the ideals of beauty, an attempt to feel good about yourself is paramount. Why is it not of a mainstream mindset to feed your body everything that makes your body feel good, and you will too. You’ll feel healthy, you’ll feel great. Even the ancient Greeks had it covered from the first century; Hippocrates said “Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food”, you’d think in the thousands of years that humans have been around something like this wouldn’t have been overlooked.

Since when did vanity surpass health? What can you do with a good look? It’s not tangible. Health is a quality of life and a hopeful longevity.

As a teenager I was nothing like I am now, I had quit playing all sports and opted for a sedentary lifestyle of Xbox and pastries. Spending all day not moving and devouring fast foods four times a week ; I soon put the pounds on and got really lazy. With cans of pepsi piling up in my room I was riding a sugary roller coaster. With my blood sugar dropping every hour I needed more and more to pick me up. As years passed, I was soon driven to change my lifestyle. For such a long time I had felt so lethargic, I had forgotten what it was like to have any energy at all. I had assumed that lethargy was how everyone felt, but how people managed to get things done was just a matter of will. With my healthy eating soon on point and regular exercise, I felt like I had super powers. Energy by the barrel-full ; I could do anything. I’d built up momentum, a snowballing passion for being healthy.

Personally I now find that nothing is more attractive to me than a girl who exercises and looks after herself. If that doesn’t make sense to you, try comparing it to that of a girl who drinks every weekend and suffers a hangover before devouring fried foods. Before anyone starts jumping at me via the comments , this isn’t directly aimed at females in general, it’s just easier to identify as the image culture is a much more prevalent today. Both genders are equally responsible for neglecting their body.

Most people only ever want to lose weight to look good, feeling good is often dismissed as a minor side effect.

Make feeling good your priority, the looking good will come along with it.