Myth #1: "Being Healthy Is An All Or Nothing Game"

Kicking off my March Myth Busting Series, is one of the most harmful, most pervasive health myths out there:  That being healthy is an all or nothing game.

If you are like me, there was at least a period of time in your life where you were told, whether by a doctor, parent, teacher, friend, or just media in general, that you needed to change your 'lifestyle' and become 'healthier'.

What that means exactly may have been different for each of us, but 'health preaching' is the new social religion, and it seems that there are never any shortage of health prophets ready to give you exactly the right type of sanctimonious coaching and guidance that you need to "become a better person".

For some odd reason, other people feel completely entitled to commenting on your  body and your life as long as they can somehow draw out how it pertains to your overall health...and if you ask a panel of 20 people what you should change about yourself in order to become "healthy", you're likely to get 20 pretty broad answers.

"Do more cardio"
"Do more muscle training"
"Eat less calories"
"Eat more calories, but only the 'good ones'."
"Drink water"
"Get more sleep"
"Quit {smoking, drinking, eating meat, eating GMOs, eating carbs, eating gluten, eating dairy...etc}"
"Meditate"
"Have more sex"
"Drink more wine"
"Just relax"

The list could on forever.

But the advice is almost always the same: If you don't do this, you will never be healthy.  Because you either "are" healthy, or you "aren't" healthy. 

And that's a lie.

While some activities may easily be classified as 'healthy' or 'unhealthy', a person's actual health lifestyle isn't so easily broken down. Most of us fall somewhere on a health spectrum, and move up and down this spectrum based on the decisions that we make over the course of time.

Health is often a vague term that we use when we compare ourselves to who we were or who we could be. Alternatively, it is a term that evaluates where we stand as compared to the rest of society.
But there is no 'one size fits all' definition of health.

And pretending that there is is a big part of the problem.

Generally speaking, people aren't "healthy" or "unhealthy". We talk about them as if they are- "That girl runs every day...she is so healthy!" or "That woman is so fat...I can't believe she let herself become that unhealthy."-  but the truth is seldom that simple.

You see, that woman who runs every day...she's a smoker.

Suddenly not so healthy, right?

And that obese woman you see there? She just finished biking a 180 km bike race for MS last month, and may have already lost sixty pounds.

And yet, she is fat...so unhealthy...right?

Wrong.

When we try to oversimplify the human body, we create false dualisms: You either 'are' or you 'are not'. This is the case, not only with health, but with many aspects of our society including wealth, education, intelligence, ability and even gender.

Breaking down these nonsensical categories is the first step to understanding the complexity of 'wellness'.

You, as a person, are neither 'healthy' or 'unhealthy'. You may have characteristics or traits that make you more or less healthy, but you likely do not exist firmly planted in one category or the other.

If you consider that health is a spectrum, as opposed to an all or nothing unchangeable state of being, you will begin to recognize that every single choice you make can affect how you feel in terms of your overall wellness.

You begin to realize that you have the power to be healthier, or less healthy, at any given moment in numerous different ways. 

That is where empowerment comes from. It comes, one decision at a time, often in tiny baby steps that together can add up to leaps and bounds.

You are not bound by one, two or even fifty unhealthy decisions. And you do not have to change everything about yourself and your life in order to become 'healthy' overnight.

Health is an ongoing process of improving and maximizing your body's functioning, and it can be improved in a myriad of different ways including increasing your physical activity, seeking a new mental challenge, or doing things that promote your sense of emotional and psychological well-being.

Many people who decide that they want to change their lifestyle by way of increasing their fitness and reducing their body size report feeling overwhelmed, intimidated and completely helpless at the enormity of the undertaking.

I remember feeling that way. I really do.

I remember feeling that the distance between 'desired' weight and 'current' weight was so far apart that there was simply no point in starting....so I didn't, for a very long time.

And then I made the decision to not care about weight.

Instead, I made the decision to just move and to focus on loving myself enough to dedicate a little extra time to my own self care.

Move a little more each day. And do something just for "me" every day.

Soon, fifty extra steps turned into thousands. And those thousands turned into miles.

And fifteen minute baths turned into hour long runs- opportunities to be alone, with myself and with my thoughts every day.

And with every extra step, I was healthier than I had been the day before.

And with every self-care goal I achieved, I felt happier than I ever had before.

It took a long time before I was ready to integrate more healthy decisions in my overall wellness routine. Diet, better sleep, more water...these are all steps that I took over time, when I felt ready and comfortable in doing so.  I quickly learned that trying to change too much too fast resulted in feeling discouraged and in my momentum seeping away too quickly.

It also took a really long time for my healthy choices to translate to a body size and weight that others would see as healthy.

So I was the fat lady at the gym, being jeered at by size 2 19 year olds...and then enjoying them watch in awe as a I dashed my way through a steady 10 km run.

My heart knew it was healthy before my waist line did.

But it was not an overnight transformation. I needed to take the time to process and interalize every small change until they were no longer 'changes' but instead had become habits.

I am not really 'healthy' now....but I am on a positive journey towards living a healthier life.

And that journey is more important than some imagined destination of "health" could ever be.

It's not an all or nothing game. If you don't think you can do everything overnight, you are right. You probably can't. But you can probably do 'something'- small as it may be.

And sometimes, something is everything.