Let Go of a Ridiculous Standard of Health and Find Your Own!

Stop making decisions in pursuit of a healthy life based on a standard that was never defined by you!

Here is what most of us believe. Skinny is good, fat is bad, you should be the weight your BMI says you need to be or you should always be working to get there.

I’m so over that narrative.

I lost 125 lbs. 12 years ago and have been a personal trainer and running coach for 8 years, a nutrition coach for 6 years, and a health coach for a year, and that messaging keeps people depressed, self-loathing, and hopeless.

Have you ever stepped back and thought what does health look like separate from the number on the scale? Have you thought beyond aesthetics into how healthy would make you feel, and what a healthy body would allow you to do? Have you thought about health in terms of not just the physical, but the emotional, the mental, the spiritual, and the financial?

Have you ever equated health with peace? With self-love and acceptance?

Have you ever thought that maybe this health and wellness thing is so hard because you are striving for a standard you did not come up with and yet it’s your body and your life?

Maybe it’s time.

Health is a spectrum of so many things that make up a whole person. To me, a healthy person is someone who has found peace with themselves, done the internal work, and reflects that externally. Their health does not limit them or dictate their quality of life. The biomarkers of a healthy body are present with healthy blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar numbers.

And besides the last few, those are very subjective things.

We have to shut out the noise and start asking ourselves what we want our health and wellness to look like and pursue it wholeheartedly. External motivation will last only a short time and your pursuit will be cut short because you don’t have anything to anchor you to your goals. But intrinsic motivation (the identification of what YOU want for your health and wellness and how It will serve YOUR life) will keep you pushing forward to make it a reality.

I have defined my health and wellness as the lifelong pursuit of finding peace with my body and food both of which have been my enemies since I was a small child. It has meant not owning a scale. It has meant lifting weights and running so I can have a strong body that helps me continue to run because I love it so much. A body that allows me to do the things I want like whitewater rafting with my boys or stand-up paddle boarding, hiking, dancing, or anything that makes me feel grateful that I am no longer a prisoner to my body mentally or physically. It means going to therapy, owning my mistakes, my issues, and my patterns, and working hard to change them, forgive them, and overcome them. It means being present with what I need versus what I want. It means sitting on my porch in the morning with a cup of coffee and just breathing in gratefulness for this beautiful life.

This is what brought me to become a certified (and soon Board certified) health coach. At this point in my career, I have had the privilege to work with hundreds of clients. While I love personal training, run coaching, and nutrition coaching they never addressed the whole person. Yet I would find myself having conversations with clients about their needs and goals outside of the scope of what they had come to me for. A desire to address their health on a deeper level and more holistically. I realized health coaching would help me partner with clients and help guide them toward THEIR vision of health and wellness. It has been so fulfilling seeing clients realize they can let go of a standard they have been chasing that makes them feel like they are failing, and instead run towards a version of themselves that makes them feel empowered and successful. 

Now is the time to let, go of what you have been told, and start to listen to your mind, body, and heart to understand what the healthiest version of you looks like and create a lifestyle that brings that vision to life.