I thought an interesting topic to write about today would be
something that’s a prevalent part of our society today. Physical appearance, which can directly
relate to self-perception and awareness of one’s self in the world, is something
that is weighted a little too much in the eyes of others, in my opinion. I want to give my thoughts on how you should view someone and what I think you can do to be healthier.
Just to get this started, I’ll give a brief description of
how I view myself physically. Even
though I would prefer you to already know what I look like before reading
this. I am a 6’2”, 178lb, Caucasian male
who most people would describe as a conservative 8/10 and usually 9.6/10 when
they’re being really honest with themselves.
Alright, so I’m kidding, but I think one part of enhancing your own
physical appearance is having a strong, positive opinion about who you are and
what you look like. Someone who
constantly spends a majority of their time looking at themselves in a mirror,
picking out which clothes they look best in, and making unnecessary comments
about someone else’s physical attributes is not someone I find particularly
attractive as a person. Someone who
accepts who they are, embraces their own body, and tries to make the best out
of any given situation is someone who is worth knowing in my book (or blog, I
guess).
It’s a real shame that our society puts so much focus on
people’s looks because that is the most superficial thing you can like about
someone. Growing up, kids are excluded
and alienated because they don’t look a certain way or dress a certain way and
sometimes it takes its toll on their psyche.
I think that sort of bullying kind of peters off during/after college,
but physical appearance is oftentimes a factor in getting a job or succeeding
at work. Our society (or maybe just CNN)
places enough emphasis on looks to report on times when celebrities like
Jennifer Lawrence, Beyonce, or Emma Watson get their haircut and treat it like
it is legitimate news. You should never
try to aspire to be like a celebrity in that sense, because it is almost
completely unattainable and not healthy to do.
There are 7 billion people on this planet and,
unfortunately, not all of them are going to be physically appealing to every
single human being. That’s where you
have to decide that you want to know someone more than just how they are on the
outside and stop writing people off because they aren’t a certain way. Last week, I read this article about how Pope
Francis had hugged and blessed a man with severe full-body tumors (pictured
below) which really backed up my belief that that’s how everyone should treat
one another.
Switching gears into the maintenance side of physical
appearance, I want to start by saying that I believe anyone can be in good
shape if they don’t have an extremely severe, exercise-induced asthma condition,
have two functioning legs, and have a working understanding of what food is/does to your body when consumed in extreme portions. However, if you don’t share these same views
as me, it’s totally cool to be who you are regardless and do whatever you want.
I consider myself to be in shape and I work relatively hard
to keep that opinion. This is a fun fact
about me, but one of my main life goals is to not have a gut ever (which I’m
really not trying to throw out as a brag about not having a gut now) and I do
try to maintain a lifestyle where I shouldn’t really have to worry about my
metabolism not keeping up. However, one
thing that kind of gets to me is when people around me complain that they don’t
have time to stay in shape, they don’t like going to the gym or running, or
they don’t understand how I can be in such good shape with the copious amounts
of food and drink I consume regularly.
The reason why this annoys me a little is because it’s not
easy to be in a shape that you can be personally happy with and it’s going to
take work. Honestly, the main reason I
run or work out so much is because I actually enjoy it. The times I don’t enjoy it are times when I
feel like I’m missing out on some social activity or it’s really freezing
outside. But I enjoy doing it because I
know how it benefits me and I do actually feel good doing it. People need to want to exercise for their own
personal health over how they think other people see them. For me, I run and I don’t eat a ton of greasy
pizza so that I won’t have a heart condition at age 25 and be permanently
entrapped on a couch at age 50. Having a
grade A body is simply a benefit of working hard for it and it is definitely a
hard thing to do.
Maybe all of these complaints get to me because I hear them
mostly from college-aged kids a lot.
When you’re in college, let’s be honest, there’s a fair amount of free
time that is usually dedicated to how much one drinks. Since I’m pretty sure beer, vodka, wine, rum,
and even pop aren’t supposed to be positive supplements to the body, I try to
balance out the negatives with a positive run or workout the next day instead
of being totally hungover and watching Hulu/Netflix for the majority of my
day. It is usually the most painful
thing in the world to do but I try and see it as a just punishment for being a
loud, annoyingly happy drinker.
I kind of slid off topic for a second, but the point of that
was that you have to really make time and dedicate effort to be healthy and
college kids usually do have the time.
Even if that means going on a midnight run to the gym, getting off work
at 5pm and pushing yourself out the door to get to your next exercise class, or
lying on the floor doing ab exercises while watching a hilarious episode of Parks and Recreation. You end up feeling better for it (if not
immediately, then in the long run) and I’m guessing you’ll live a little bit
longer.
What I wanted this article to be about was not changing for
other people but changing for you. Become
fit because you want to be healthy. Eat
what you want if you can be sure you won’t regret it down the road. Balance out your time between watching hours
of sports/movies/video games/web surfing and time outside. Within the next decade, when my generation
and I get past our best metabolism years, who wanted to be healthy is going to
show and I promise I won’t be one of the people complaining about my
middle-aged gut.
As a closer, I feel like this article could give off an
overly aggressive vibe or something demanding you to live a certain way which
was not my intention. I just couldn’t
really think of a way to write which would give my true opinions and also not
seem like I don’t take this topic seriously.
There’s a reason America is one of the more overweight countries of the
world, and I think it’s a totally solvable problem when people have the time
and prioritize accordingly. Thanks for
reading!
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