HEALTH
By Traci Townsend
Here’s what I need you to know. You do not have to be perfect to be fit. You do not have to be a certain size to be fit. You do not have to have a restrictive or limited diet to be fit. In fact, I believe, there is a unique fit for each person, but what tends to happen is we compare ourselves to others. We compare our looks to others and we compare our habits to others. And I think we compare ourselves to others so much that we begin to lose ourselves and undervalue who we uniquely are. I am also working on not comparing my fitness to that of others. It’s hard, but I’m working on it and you can, too. As I’ve grown in my fitness journey, fitness has become about understanding how movement and nutrition affect my body and the best way that I can incorporate them into my lifestyle. And I think that’s what everyone should try to do - determine how to incorporate movement and nutrition into their lives and recognize that it might look 60
different from someone else, and that’s okay. There was a podcast that I recently listened to that focused on weight loss and the messages that society sends about larger body sizes. In this podcast, Dr. John Berardi and guests discuss the biases held against people of larger body sizes. This podcast offers a variety of perspectives on the topic and several things resonated with me, especially this statement, “...it means that people make their own choices about how best to meet their own health and fitness goals and that when they are doing so they don’t have to stigmatize other people on their weight or their appearance.” A coach can provide detailed information about health and fitness and support you along your fitness journey. However, you are the expert of yourself and, as a team, you and your coach can determine your own, unique fitness goals. You know yourself better than anyone else.
