I have been meaning to post about this for awhile, and figured today was a good enough day as any! There has been a lot of talk swirling around about what being healthy really means. Is it a split percentage between eating healthy and exercising? What about mental health, or healthy hygiene habits? I honestly think this is a PERSONAL decision, and not an “across the board” blanket statement you can make about someone.
If someone has emotional issues, then mental health is going to be more important and beneficial to their current well being, because we all know how stress can take years off your life!
If someone else never brushes their teeth or flosses, it is going to be VERY important that they start doing that to be healthy, more so important than an exercise or healthy eating plan.
Then you have someone like me, who would RATHER workout more than eat salads everyday. It is more important to me to be active than more restrictive on my eating. Of course I try to eat healthy, but I also have chocolate everyday and bread and sugar. If I were to take those things out of my life to be more healthy, then my mental health would suffer, which would probably make me depressed and angry, and that isn’t very healthy now is it? Everyone handles things differently, and all decisions have varying effects on people. Of course I think you should try to eat healthy AND have healthy habits AND exercise AND be mentally healthy, but you can’t juggle all of those plates perfectly at the same time without one coming crashing down in my opinion.
The key is BALANCE. And guess what? it’s ok if your balance is different from your sisters, your friends, or the bloggers blog that you read religiously. You were made to be unique, there is no one else like you! Take pride in the fact that you are a one of a kind masterpiece!
You are not healthy because some magazine says you have to do this or that to be so.
You are not healthy just because you run a marathon.
You are not healthy because you do all the “right” things other people expect you to do.
You have to personally define healthy for yourself, and be that. If you try to be someone else’s healthy, you will probably fall short and never be happy with yourself. Is it ok to read articles, get input and help on healthy habits? of course! But be your own person! Take all those little bits of advice and form health for yourself.
I used to think healthy was fitting every health article and piece of advice to a T. It became an impossible chore and made me miserable! I have since found a balance that works for me. There is always room for improvement, but I want to actually live my life, and not look back and realize I wasted all my time trying to reach some impossible perfect goal of health according to someone else’s standards. Advice will always conflict, people will always disagree, and that’s ok!
Look for a follow up post coming soon about my thoughts on being beautiful!
Two Questions of the day today:
What are your thoughts on what health means? What is it to you? Do you strive to be someone else’s standard of healthy or do you have your own?
I am working on pieces for my blog..what are some things you want to see more of, don’t want to see etc? More workout related posts, pictures, food, family life, dogs, Disney, etc? if you don’t want to leave anything in the comments you can e mail me at runningwithsass AT gmail DOT com.
Being a Disney freak myself (and DVC member) I would LOVE to see more about Disney. I also love learning about peoples family life. I enjoy reading about your new home, things you do with your husband and recipes.
I agree–balance, and balance in the big sense–as in, today might not be balanced, but hopefully the week as a whole is; or the month might not be balanced but hopefully the season is, etc.
I love this post. It is so easy to get caught up in what today’s definition of healthy is and if I tried to be all of the definitions I’d run myself into the ground. I actually made a comment about healthy eating on my blog this morning!
I completely agree! A healthy lifestyle is defined different by everyone and you have to do what works best for you! For me, I try to keep learning and evolving and understanding about health and fitness so that I can be my best self. I don’t live up to anyone else’s standards but my own though. And that is good enough for me!
Terrific post Heather, I am a reader and I don’t comment a lot but I agree with everything that you said. I used to try to be that person who tried to be perfect all the time when it came to my diet, but I quickly realized I am not a girl that can just eat a small salad and be happy. I need a little bit of chocolate in my life! I think that balance is the key to being happy, and when we are happy sometimes it’s easier to be healthier.
I agree with Kristen. I am a Disney person, I followed you over from the Disboards and would love to have more Disney. I also like her enjoy getting to know you and your family through your posts about life. I feel like your blog is pretty well rounded mix of things. You keep it interesting by focusing on different topics 🙂
Heather, I love this post! I totally agree that it’s important for each individual to define their own “healthy”. In this society it can be really difficult to understand what “balance” means for you, because it gets so clouded with the absolutely insane (and conflicting!) information on what you should do to be so-called healthy. Its taken me a while to figure out what works best for me, and I spent a couple of years being underweight trying to follow what I thought I was “supposed to do” and how I was “supposed to look.” When I realized that none of it was worth sacrificing my happiness, I focused on me and starting eating and exercising in the way that worked best for me. That involved a lot of changes, but one of the big ones was just eating more. When I ate what is considered a “normal” amount for an active woman my height, it was just not enough for me and my weight kept dropping. I had to learn to accept that (at least right now) my body requires a larger quantity of food than most, and its not something I need to feel bad about.
Anyway, I love that you are spreading this message and agree that health is a personal decision! I wish that more of our culture sent this same message.
I think healthy is a balance of what works for you, what makes you happy. I mean, eating perfectly healthy and working out all the time can make you a model of physical health but if I put all of my focus into that I would be so unhappy and crazy mentally that it wouldn’t be worth it. It really is all about balance, and a balance that works for you!
I love this post! It is so true that healthy can mean many things. Having dealt with a slight eating disorder myself, I’ve gone through the morphed thinking of what healthy is. Unfortunately it’s not something you totally get rid of, but posts like this make me realize that it’s not worth comparing myself with others!
I love everything on your blog – like others say, you do a great job of mixing it up! Gives me something to strive toward 🙂
thanks, and thanks for reading!
Great post! To me, being healthy is not only treating your body well through exercise and wholesome foods, but also having a great attitude!
Another Disboard gal here! 🙂 I love your blog, and like the mix of stuff you write about. Love hearing about your running and fitness, your new home, and of course Disney! Still miss your old TRs!!!
Love this post- totally 100% agree about people having different definitions of healthy. Nobody is wrong or right, just different! What works for me may not work for someone else!
thanks laura!
Simply said, I totally agree with this post. It’s all about balance! We know what makes us tick and what makes that scale go up and down or the button on the pants tight or not. I just put this link in an e-mail going out to about 50 women here in the Pensacola area. I am training a group of women using the Couch to 5K method through a ministry called Sole2Soul Sisters. It has been such a blessing to help others, even in this season where I am injured. Maybe you will get even more readers. I love, love, love your blog. Have a terrific weekend! I’m headed to the beach. It’s good for my mental health and my favorite french fries are found there! 🙂
thanks for the sweet encouragement! Sole2Soul sounds awesome. I would love to coach a running group some day. I think it’s terrific you are doing that! Have a blast at the beach, wish i was going! 🙂 Eat some french fries for me.