Happy and Healthy

I’m sure that I’ll write plenty of posts about the important aspects of resistance training and how to eat right in order to support your workout and all that jazz.  To start it off though, I’d much prefer to bring up a topic relevant to the people who aren’t so completely obsessed with the health and fitness world as those of us who make it our profession.  I want to talk about this whole “quality of life” thing.

I come from an overweight family, borderline obese depending on stress levels.  Fortunately for me however, I take after my mother’s side of the family (meaning I’m blessed to be the “thin” daughter), but my sisters and father have both genetic factors and lifestyle habits that make weight gain extremely easy.  Despite their weight issues though, they are extremely positive, outgoing individuals with an inspiring zest for life.  Their baseline quality of life is high, there is no question about that, but there are times when I watch their attitudes drop because their weight prohibits them from living the life they love.  My older sister loves kickboxing and ultimate frisbee, but she gets severe back pain when she becomes a regular at these events; my younger sister was a two-sport varsity athlete in high school and aspires to play intramural rugby and flag football in college, but she struggles to keep her energy level up and her joints get sore easily; my dad coached basketball for over 10 years and he still plays pick-up games with his former players on a weekly basis, but his knees constantly give out and he has problems getting up and down the court for an entire game.  As positive and joyful as their current quality of life may be, weight issues limit their ability to reach their full potential for happiness.

Just because you already have a high quality of life, doesn’t mean you can’t improve it.  There are always areas of our life that we feel limited in, regardless of if it’s a self-limitation or an external limitation, and those restrictions steal from actualizing our potential to live a fully enriched life.  Improving these areas of your life doesn’t need to be a source of stress – it’s the small, simple adjustments that make the frustrations almost effortlessly dissipate.  So here is my challenge for you this week: identify an area of life that limits you (over-commitment, working environment, weight struggles), and take action on one specific cause in order to relieve a small sliver of daily stress (committing ten minutes to yourself before bed, delegating more responsibility to others, drinking water instead of sugary drinks).  Improving your happiness should be simple and enjoyable, so allow the change to happen and enable everyday to turn out even better than the last!

By: Chelsea “Ck” Ellwood

Intern Fitness Quest 10
www.FitnessQuest10.com