In the craziness of life today we have become fixated on achieving the ‘perfect’ body going to any lengths to achieve it… somewhere along the way many of us have lost the notion of ‘keeping it real’ and being fit, strong and healthy. Every day I train people and have conversations with many about their bodies, their health and their attitudes toward them. It is an almost unanimous attitude that most people particularly women will dislike if not hate something about their bodies. I have seen my share of overweight clients and fortunately for me I can always see the leaner healthier person underneath. Having not ever been overweight I cannot honestly know what it must be like to live in a body that is so limiting in terms of functionality and discomfort which is what being overweight represents to a large degree. I do hear occasionally that you can be overweight and still be healthy which I totally disagree with. The problems are vast in terms of placing unnecessary stress on your organs, joints and having an increased risk of Diabetes, heart disease, elevated Blood pressure and so on.

We have more information today on the topics of diet, exercise and lifestyle than ever before yet so many of us are so overwhelmed and so confused. I keep to my mantra with this one by ‘keeping it real’. By this I mean simplify everything and you can’t go wrong. There is age old advice about eating fruit and veggies and lean protein. Guess what? It works! The age old advice to do some exercise every day is again pretty dammed good advice. Why then do we need to complicate everything? Information overload perhaps? The human body is designed to move. It needs to be fuelled well and hydrated with water. If we do these simple things then it will function well. The problem for so many is not that we are so much time poor which I believe is becoming the latest excuse but rather managing our time better and prioritising what is important for us to lead healthy fulfilled lives. Remember, you have the same amount of hours in a day as everyone else and it blows my mind what some people can and do achieve in any given day.

There was an article in last week’s Sun Herald about bodies and Michelle Bridges wrote about hers. I found it a pretty real account for someone who is looked up to as a ‘celebrity trainer’ who admits she has her ‘issues’ and ‘flaws’ and yes she has comfort food like the rest of us mere mortals. One of the points she made in that article was that for her exercise is her rock and is more for her head than her body. She went on to say exercise is an antidepressant which I believe is so very true. Whilst I am not a fan of the Biggest Loser at all I do commend Michelle Bridges for encouraging so many people to ‘keep it real’ and make a difference to the health and wellbeing of so many.

Isn’t it time we started to look at the real issues of our bodies and work on improving our attitudes to them along with the purpose of improving our health and wellbeing? Perhaps we would have more happy healthier individuals living in functional bodies.