…it’s time to take a “360” for a more balanced approach to being healthy, mentally and physically.
ALTHOUGH I AM SO TEMPTED TO SAY THAT, THIS MONTH, SHAPE FOCUSES ON A TOPIC THAT’S "CLOSE TO OUR HEARTS”, I WON’T. Ironically, to say that the subject of “fat” is “close to our hearts” is both right and, hopefully, wrong.
While most of us in the “developed world”, fret and fuss about all that extra fat we carry around, those of us—like yours truly—who carry it more on the hips and thighs rather than the torso and belly, are said to be “safer”, that is, from a heart attack.
The other thing that I find really ironic is how we are so obsessed over being overweight. I flip on to news channels and am regaled with reports on people, in some parts of the globe, starving. Life’s unfair and this is nowhere more apparent than our obsession with losing weight, which most of us equate with losing fat.
While some of us are forced to eat to live, those of us who are given nature’s bounty tend to live to eat. Both situations, however, seem to dove-tail at the same place: Mortal danger.
That’s why this month’s Focus on fat tries its best to take “a 360” on the topic, that is, to be as balanced on the subject as possible. For too many of us, especially women, being fat—or at least being perceived as such— is synonymous with being unattractive. However, it may prove more mentally healthy to regard fat as something that may be unhealthy for yourself, rather than how it makes you more likeable or otherwise to others.
As such, planning to lose weight or fat for yourself because it will make you feel great by helping you perform at your best when you’re at your optimal fat-tomuscle ratio may well be the better (even the winning) mental strategy, as opposed to wanting to do it so that other people might regard you more favorably.
To cut a long story short, cut the fat for yourself, not for or because of anyone else. It has to start from the inside. This, of course, doesn’t mean that you have to go at it alone. Shape’s here right?
*For the full article please refer to Shape June 2011 Issue
