The Pep Talk: Obesity vs Underweight

Every overweight person wants to shed those extra pounds and every skinny lean individual wants a die for figure.   The internet is filled with slimming tricks, weight loss-gain diets, nutrition plans, success stories and fad diets. We all want the magic to work overnight. In many cases, people go on hunger strikes, eat healthy, work out at the gym for a few weeks and lose a few pounds. Then take off to celebrate and relax and the entire nightmare comes back tumbling. In the alternative case people who are fed up of listening to “you look like a lamp post” go binging on junk.

Just like losing weight is difficult, gaining a few pounds is even more difficult. What we need to realize is that all our bodies don’t work the same way. Many of you go to extremes, get anorexic, live off leaves without shedding any of those calories and many vice-versa. No one knows your body better than you.

The biggest mistake here is our goal, “To lose-gain x pounds”. Being fat is not bad. For example a slightly overweight person who eats healthy, does moderate amount of physical work, and can walk a kilometer or two without panting and puffing is healthier than a lean individual who has no stamina to climb a flight of staircase. Remember, do not judge health based on appearance. The goal must be to stay healthy.

Throw your health magazines away. Hit the gym, run an extra mile, jog to your grocery store, climb those stairs. Keep your heart pumping.

Do not read the health corner like a junk. Educate yourself on food. Put the extra effort. Love your body, nourish it. Treat it the way it deserves to be treated.

Living healthy is not for today or for a week or for a month. It’s a lifestyle change. Your mirror should not be the only thing that noticed the change. Eating healthy and living healthy should brighten the soul.

Post by Zohra Sada