Toned zone mama speaks!!

Someone once said that our bodies are apt to be our autobiographies. I would like to add that our bodies speak volumes about our attitudes toward ourselves and toward life in general. I have observed several body biographies in my workplace this week. There are bodies that say ‘I hate myself’ – these ‘bodies’ use their weight to intimidate and control others. They are not satisfied within themselves and clearly demonstrate this in their rudeness to coworkers, family members and strangers alike. Not only are they physically uncomfortable in their own skin but emotionally and socially uncomfortable as well. It’s as if they are attempting to assert power through size rather than through positive esteem of self and others. What they lack in emotional and social size they are attempting to make up in physical size. Sadly no amount of physical size can compensate for a shriveled and starving mind and soul. Concurrently no amount of food can compensate for failure to feed the soul. When we fail to give our bodies adequate care through rest, nutrition, and exercise, we also fail to nurture our minds and spirits. When we abuse our bodies through excess food we abuse our minds and spirits at the same time. No amount of food will compensate for a starved soul just as no amount of affection will compensate for a lack of physical nutrition.

So with each decade of life think about the biography your body is writing. What do you want to have written at 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 and beyond. My 70 year old neighbor hikes every day and exudes the strength and vitality of youth. Her body biography clearly states she has cared for and loved herself as well as others. Conversely I have another acquaintance – same age of 70 who is crippled with obesity—hips and knees replaced to deal with the stresses that weight has put on her body. Then there’s another 70 year old I know whose lungs have been destroyed with smoking and the lines and grayness in her skin clearly write the biography of her life. Add to her the 60+ woman in the dementia unit who has destroyed her brain with alcohol. What a sad biography her body has written.

So in your youth think about what your body will say about your life. Will it have the effects of alcohol, smoking, obesity, or drugs carved into its cells or will it be written with the vigor and vitality that only nutrition, exercise, and rest can scribe.

What will your body say about you? What does it say about you now?

-R