Getting (Back) into Fitness

First of all, it's never too late to be fit. Social media makes many think fitness ends after summer, that wedding, that Friends-giving, fifteen year reunion, etc. The reality is that fitness is a lifelong relationship with yourself. This relationship shifts throughout this life experience and its maintenance guarantees a life of balance and ease in comparison to those simply surviving through society as is.  

Here are three things probably holding you and many back from getting into fitness.

The United States has disseminated many dangerous mindsets throughout its borders and beyond. A few are quick gratification, the grind,  and over-consumption.

Quick Gratification

We live in a world where if you're lucky you can get whatever you want in hours if not minutes at the expense of the exploitation of majority of the population. This ability plus the lack of foundational blocks of community( universal healthcare, rest days, time to connect, etc.) leads many, with the help of advertising, to believe that they can get achieve anything if they have the money to.

This simply is not true when it comes to your fitness. Fitness, takes discipline, time, contemplation, effort, connection.

You could buy some protein shakes and only drink that for a month. You'll possibly lose fifteen pounds and your mind. Rapidly decreasing your food consumption will lead you to feeling tired, hungry, and unable to do what you want to do in life.

You could scrape off fat on your back and add it to your butt. However, if you don't take the time to understand your body and how you eat, you might just gain that fat on your back once again and look a little unbalanced, if you didn't' already get an infection from the procedure.

You could pay for a trip to Oaxaca to go on an ayahuasca trip. But if you must do this  to gain bliss and stabillity in your life, I don't think you're as enlightened as you think you are.

Quick fixes don't save relationships, don't create a better society, and don't serve you well in life.

The Grind

This country requires us to work constantly, while telling us we are failures for not fitting a size 8 pants or not getting that promotion or whateverthefuck. We should be working more and buying more and buying more.

Discipline and effort does not mean The Grind. If you were to apply The Grind to your fitness, like with anything, you burn out. You give up, You say "this isn't for me, I'll never feel good in my body, I'll never be alive for my friends and kids".

Over consumption

I don't know who started it, but the U.S. has been described as a place where many are overfed and undernourished. I'd agree. A lot of the foods available for very cheap are ultraprocessed, made with subsidized corn. This is not to label foods good or bad, it's simply the nutritional value. Many of these ultraprocessed foods have high amount of calories(energy) while lacking in extremely beneficial nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, protein, essential fats, fiber, etc.  

Some folks describe foods like this or "junk foods" as being empty calories. This is literally wrong, but poetically accurate. A lot of snacks and treats and quick bites have an abundance of calories, salt, sugar, random shit that makes it harder to put it down and lack ingredients that would make that food item satiating. This results in many people grabbing for more because they don't feel nourished/it tastes good, and overtime gaining weight while not gaining the building blocks that promote balance within the body.

Too much of anything is not ideal. I love cheesy fries and donuts, but i do know that eating seven donuts every week takes away from me eating something that will make my joints less painful.

Conclusion

Yes, it takes time, effort, discipline, and sometimes money to work at this balance, but with societal decline, the pandemic, oppression, you cannot afford to be letting the powers that be to trick you into thinking you are powerless in your ability to care for yourself and others. We are in this together.