What does "Healthy" mean to you?

I imagine it is difficult as a fitness practitioner to find the best method because people are diverse and there cannot be one way for all. I'm not fitness guru, but I do put my health/diet/fitness on my list of lifelong priorities. I've learned that my primary focus should be on my overall health, because when I focus on numbers I become obsessed and frustrated. That's not to say that I don't check my numbers, I do. But I don't live by them anymore. Instead, I watch as my body transforms into what it chooses to be based on regular achievable exercise, adequate calories and nutrients from healthy whole food, and stress reduction (including adequate sleep). By doing so, I've put on weight that, by industry standards, means I'm "fat" on the BMI chart (146 on a 5'3" medium frame). But when I look in the mirror I see a healthy woman; healthier than when I was lighter in weight. Now that I'm stronger and have more endurance, I don't ever want to go back to achieving an industry standard. I'm happy, healthy, and generally fit... and I have come to accept that I will never be the general populous' "ideal" body type because my own personal body type is perfectly ideal for me. I've given up the fight with my body. I have learned to love and embrace it... it is my temple.

This is what "healthy" means to me. What does "healthy" mean to you?

Replies

  • timbrom
    timbrom Posts: 303 Member
    I like Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore's definition of fitness:

    "Possession of adequate levels of strength, endurance, and mobility to provide for successful participation in occupational effort, recreational pursuits, familial obligation, and that is consistent with a functional phenotypic expression of the human genotype."