Be The Change You Want To See

We live in an imperfect world full of flawed characters. None of us are perfect, neither are our parents, neither are our teachers. Those people this substandard world idolise are definitely not perfect. Yet we all have good within us. Light to cover the dark. I love the old Cherokee story of the Two Wolves:

One evening an old Cherokee Indian told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, ‘My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.’

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: ‘Which wolf wins?’

The old Cherokee simply replied, ‘The one you feed.’

How true that is. We are all the sum of our decisions. At the end of a tumultuous first year, Harry Potter lies in the hospital wing and listens to Dumbledore say "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." How do you define yourself? What actions are you taking to make that definition accurate? Everyone is blessed with talents and abilities- what is yours? Are you using it for good? Which wolf are you feeding?

I am lucky to live in a free country with an amazing wife and a wonderful family. I am passionate about sport, health and fitness. There is a change that I want to make and I am striving to live it myself. I want to start a revolution.

 Specifically, a revolution in how we see ourselves and how we approach personal health. The fitness industry is rampant with faceless cashpires (vampires that suck money). The media bombards us with thousands of articles every day on how to "lose 20kg" or "get slim for bikini season". On the other side of the spectrum, plus size models advertise feel good messages of "it's okay to be big if you're happy".

This has to stop!

Adult obesity rose from 49.85% to 55.2% between the years of 2001 to 2008 and it has had no reason to slow down since. Obesity is a disease, there is no sugar coating that. It is a gateway disease that leads to diabetes, binary calculus's, respiratory insufficiency, nocturnal apnoea, cardiovascular diseases, arterial hypertension, arthritis of backbone and lower limbs, infertility and cancer. Remove obesity and you severely cut the likelihood of all those disease. Remove obesity and you cut a huge personnel and economic burden free of the hospital system. Money better spent on the education system or on medical research. Plus size models can be as confident as they want but that won't make them healthy. That won't shorten the laundry list of risks they expose themselves to and it won't relieve the pressure on an overburdened healthcare system.

How do we stop obesity? It's simple. It's not easy, but it's simple. We take the onus off weight and we put it on performance. I cannot stress the importance of that statement so I will repeat it in big bold letters:

We take the onus off weight and we put it on performance.

This is the central premise behind this fitness revolution. This is the latchkey idea that the world needs to swallow, consider and apply. 

For too long the world of health and fitness has been devoted entirely to how much an individual weighs. Big Bang Theory character Sheldon Cooper says it best with the question: "Is your body mass somehow tied in with your self worth?", and it's true. For a lot of people, health starts and stops with the number on the scale.

However, weight is a tricky thing. People can get to what they think is a healthy weight and be falling apart on the inside. Weight is not an accurate indicator of health. What is? Performance. If you can run a mile under four minutes, lift your body weight effortlessly or sprint one hundred meters in under twelve seconds, chances are your not going to be obese or underweight. Unhealthy people simply cannot do those things. 

The motivational mental aspect is much better with performance too. Weight comes off slowly and we live in an impatient society. A one hundred and twenty kilogram woman aiming to lose forty kilos has a yard stick of forty notches to measure her progress. Losing forty kilograms in a healthy way would take at least eighty weeks. That's eighteen months, of waiting on progress with the only evidence that she's improving coming once a fortnight. How long would any of us last with a goal that progresses so slowly?

Performance on the other hand gives a much longer yard stick, a much more motivating progression of improvement. That same one hundred and twenty kilogram woman might walk a mile in thirty minutes. The next day she might be able to do it ten seconds faster, a week later she's knocked off a full minute. If she's using a stopwatch and counting to the seconds, trying to get that mile run down from thirty minutes to ten than she has now built a yardstick with twelve hundred notches.

I spent the best part of three years in a gym trying to get muscles that would impress. Now, I just want to get strong. My goals are all strength related. I build to them slowly and see progress each and every week and I've never been more motivated. I want to share this motivation, not just with you but with everyone. 

If you agree and if you have time to share, I ask that you spread this article on. Together we can start the revolution. The wolves rage on, which one will you feed?