So for the past 9 and a half months, I have been dieting and working out. I initially did this to improve my mental health and eventually remove my medications for depression (I eventually did! But that’s a whole other story). It has not been an easy process, and I wanted to share with you a little bit about my on-going journey. No, this won’t be the inspirational “You can do it!” or “You can be sexy!” or “If I can do it, you can too!” type of post. I am not a nutritionist or a dietician so I am not qualified to give advice on how to lose weight. What I wanted to share with you are my introspections and my image of the “self” as realized over the past few months.
One thing that a lot of people forget is that the “self” is made up of more than just your body. According to Plato, there’s the body, the mind and the soul. It’s so easy to forget everything else when you’re focused on losing weight, or eating less or trying to be strong. Although the body is a very integral part of the self, it is not all there is. I do believe in taking care of your body, for it houses the mind and the soul. But not to the point where your whole image of yourself is entirely dependent on how your legs look, or if your shirt makes you look fat. No, that is not the entirety of the self. Beauty can come from the mind, the way you speak or your ideas. It can even come from being so passionate about something.
So if it’s not your self-image, what drives you to take care of your body?
Although sometimes, I am still guilty of having self-image or beauty as motivation for working out (I am just human after all), I do believe that there is a bigger picture. I workout and eat healthy because of the following reasons:
1.) For the mind: Working out helps me focus and it helps me mentally because it gives me breaks from my overthinking brain and all I could think about is the exercise that I am currently doing. It also helps me become more tolerant of doing things that I don’t want to do. My workout mentality of “Just start it and do what you can” gets carried over to everyday work.
2.) For the body: Well aside for being more mobile and being stronger (ya’ll know those things already), I also find that working out makes me feel sexy no matter how I look. Sweating makes me feel good about myself. It gives me confidence and pride that I am working with this booty, and these thighs and this stomach so others’ opinions matter less to me because I know that I have my own relationship with my body.
I could think of maaaany other reasons but, I feel like these two are what motivates me the most.
I’m not saying though that you shouldn’t measure yourself, or that you shouldn’t take health seriously. By all means, do it. I’m just saying that you should go into this for the right reasons. Go into this without judgment or bias. Take it as it is, and don’t lose your “self” in the process.
depth of feels 