Why are we fat?
You can see from this nifty picture that I acquired from Wikipedia that a lot of people are essential ‘victims of their environment’, there are a host of reasons why us in the UK along with the USA and Mexico are some the fattest in the world, these percentages will have changed slightly since this was done, but it’s still a very impactful image. The main one is we eat too much and we move too little, that may be simplifying it too much, but then again….maybe not!
However, I’m not going to talk about calories or the first law of thermodynamics/law of conservation of energy, nor will I be talking about high sugar and highly palatable foods. Rather, what I am going to talk about is ‘health standards’.
We naturally compare ourselves with others, this can be both a positive and negative; it can be inspiring to see someone with awesome abs but also demotivating if it’s unrealistic for you and your individual circumstances. If you have someone close to you who’s had health issues concerning their weight it can encourage you to step up your own game to prevent yourself from having similar issues, this may even inspire them with your new healthy lifestyle. In my opinion, the most common comparison is usually the most subtle, which is you vs the 5 people you spend the most time with. Often, we humans naturally compare ourselves with each other, we look at ourselves and our lifestyle, then, of course, compare with the people closest to us…… One of our friends drinks every night, one never trains, one smokes, one is very overweight and one who literally does all of that to the extreme….we all have that one friend. Then there’s us, the normal UK resident, we are not the extreme of any of those, but are still a bit of them all, maybe too much of them all. When you compare yourselves with your peers, you might land in a relatively healthy range, you don’t drink as much as one, you train more than another, you are a healthier weight than another and let’s not even talk about our ‘wild friend’; but this does still not mean we’re healthy, the likelihood of you gaining weight or getting ill has nothing to do with the rest of the world, it’s your body and your life, you need to look after it and it’s your responsibility alone to stay or even become fit and healthy…….as well as your Personal Trainer/Coach if you have one.
ProTip - Take a step back and ask yourself these questions:
How healthy do I feel on a scale on 1-10?
How energetic arm I on a scale of 1-10?
How physically fit do I feel on a scale of 1-10?
And finally, am I setting a good example to the people around me, friend, partners and most importantly children?
If you rate yourself low on any of these then you might want to consider stepping up your game. This does not mean eating chicken and broccoli out of Tupperware, it just means not living an unhealthy life that results in you being overweight, inactive and possibly unhappy.
Without sounding too philosophical, life is about growing as a person and pursuing happiness; training and living a healthy lifestyle certainly helps with both!