Something else that I believe in wholeheartedly, is exercise. I've always exercised in one form or another, for most of my life, but it was only in the last 10 years that I really started to focus on it as anything other than a way to lose weight. Saying that exercise is there only to help you lose weight is like saying that the sun is only here to keep us warm.
Exercise is multi-purpose and essential for so many reasons, the LAST of which should be a means of weight loss. If that is all that is important to you then you need to do some serious self-evaluation. As a society, we are far too caught up in the external, and not nearly enough in the internal. You only need to ask Lizzie Velasquez how crazy people can get about external looks. She one of 3 people in the world who suffers from an extremely rare syndrome. She can't gain weight, no matter what she does. She is literally just skin and bone. In high school, she discovered a youtube video labelled "World's Ugliest Woman". It had over 4 million views and almost every comment was absolutely horrific and abusive with people telling her to do the world a favour and shoot herself... She jokes that she has a disease that everyone wants these days, but there's actually some truth to that statement, sadly.
Thin is "in". The problem with that is, people will do ANYTHING to be thin. Ironically, that ANYTHING seldom includes exercise and a healthy lifestyle. Gastric bypasses, stomach stapling, liposuction, mouth wiring, fad diets, diet pills and even starvation are just some of the lengths people will go to in pursuit of a skinny body. Go figure.
The irony is that a lot of those people will never reach their goal of being as thin as they dream of being. The underlying issue is always going to be a sense of insecurity and self-loathing so profound that they will put their bodies through the most unimaginable horrors simply to look the way society demands of them. Until that insecurity goes away, those methods are simply going to be a waste of time, money and effort.
Here is why a person like that should try exercising instead: Exercise has a proven ability to combat depression by enhancing endorphins and promoting neuron growth in the brain. It has the same effect as being on antidepressants. As with the weight loss effort, however, people still prefer to take an easier route. The use of antidepressants increased by 400% between 1988 and 2008. Only 40% of people who visit a doctor for depression, have actually had exercise recommended as part of their treatment.
Why are physicians not recommending it? It seems doctors are still more interested in writing scripts than looking into a holistic approach to any kind of illness. I can speak from experience when I say exercise has made the world of difference to my own mental state. Depression crept up on me gradually and I wasn't even aware of it until I was diagnosed. I simply refused to take pills and my doctor, thankfully, respected that. I did as much research as I could (because that's what I do;) and, as I suspected, one of the best things for depression, was exercise. I began exercising in earnest even though it was the LAST thing I felt like doing. It helped me immensely and the side effects of exercise far outweighed the side effects of pills in terms of benefits!
Depression is actually an inflammatory condition and, conversely inflammation causes depression. Exercise is proven to decrease inflammation. So, if you exercise, you not only improve your depression, but you improve the inflammation in your cells and thereby prevent other diseases from taking hold. If you improve one, you will automatically improve the other and vice versa. There’s also a strong link between depression and insulin resistance. Exercise is known to improve insulin resistance and so the same applies. Fix one and you will automatically start to fix the other. Makes sense to get out and walk then, don't you think?
If we're talking about other, medicinal benefits of exercise, well, here are just a few benefits.
- Lowers your risk of heart disease
- Reduces stroke risk
- Lowers high blood pressure
- Improves oxygen and nutrient supply to your cells
- Reduces your risk of Type 2 Diabetes
- Prevents osteoporosis
- Improves muscle strength, joint function and osteoarthritis
- Plays a role in preventing cancer
- Anti-aging: Research has found that it isn't aging that kills many elderly people, it's inactivity.
- Reduces back pain
- Prevents insomnia
- Promotes faster recovery
I could go on but I think maybe you get the idea? If you don't know what to do with exercise, call up a personal trainer and go for some sessions to learn. There are any number of gyms to join but, if gym isn't your thing, join a tennis club, a squash club, even action cricket. If THAT doesn't appeal, then go for a walk with a friend.
Choose to move instead of sitting still. Your body and your mind WILL thank you for it.
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