Lexington, KY - If someone asked you, "Do you take good care of yourself?" how would you answer? What criteria would you use to judge your answer? Would you look only at your outward appearance? Would you base your answer on your last blood work results? Would you base your answer on how much you weigh?
I find peoples' answers to this question fascinating and telling. I ask this question to new clients as a way to get to know them and the value they put on certain areas of their life. How they answer this question also gives me a peak into what my role as their trainer may be and where I need to help them focus to take better care of themselves.
Being fit does not automatically mean that you take good care of yourself. There are many pieces involved in building a structure of wellness. Each individual piece of this "wellness house" has importance, but some pieces are more critical than others. Unfortunately, I see too many people focusing on the wrong pieces, only to create a weak structure that can be easily destroyed.
The house analogy may be a little cheesy, but it works for the point I'm trying to get across. A house needs a good foundation if it is going to stand up to the various challenges that Mother Nature and time has in store for it. You can't only pay attention to the finishing touches that make a house pretty and think that it will last for years and years. Fitness is the foundation on which you must build your wellness house. A foundation of fitness will allow you to build a solid structure that will last.
Of course, you don't want to live in a gray, concrete slab house; strength with no beauty is not very desirable and would be pretty depressing after awhile. Paying attention to your outward appearance is important, too. An ugly house that is not maintained, no matter how strong it is, will never be seen as a great house.
To build a great house you need to combine several key aspects of building and design. You want a strong and aesthetically pleasing home. Looking at and around a beautiful home makes you feel good. We do react to what we see outwardly, but knowing you have a good solid foundation and basic structure gives us confidence and makes us feel safe. We don't see the foundation all of the time, but knowing it is there is important -
without it the house can collapse.
I believe truly taking care of yourself includes both a solid foundation and beautiful finishing touches. You want to look good and feel good; you need both for overall wellness.
Unfortunately in our society, feeling good while being healthy and fit takes a back seat to looking good. Let's face it, paying somebody to make us look good, on the outside, is a lot easier than putting in the physical work needed to feel good on the inside.
It is amazing to me how much time and money many individuals spend on outward beauty and never spend a minute or a dime on the very foundation of their health and wellness. I don't get it -
why spend all that time and money to try and look good and not do anything to ensure that you will be around long enough to enjoy it.
Contrarily, I don't understand those that put fitness and good nutrition at the top of their priority list, but do nothing to maintain their outward appearance. Not paying any attention to how you look, in my opinion, is not healthy. Looking in the mirror and liking what you see does make you feel good; it does add to your self-esteem and confidence.
So, once again, it comes down to balance. Taking care of yourself is a combination of both the inside and the outside -
caring about the foundation of your health and your outward appearance. Keeping a good balance between these two areas is the key to having a solid structure that will serve you well in your life.