Archive: Around Town

One night I texted my wife at the end of her long day and asked her if she needed anything. She replied with, "a new body;" definitely an LOL moment. In this society of plastic surgery, liposuction, and anti-aging treatment, it may seem easy to get yourself a new body. We can't really create anything new, though. What we can create are new habits that lead to new renovations. In reality, we're all good fixer-uppers.

Very rarely do you see a busted, decrepit house on the outside with an immaculate Better-Homes-and-Gardens inside. The outside appearance of a house almost always mirrors the inside. You may be thinking of yours right now. Just like a house, the body's outside appearance mirrors your health on the inside. This also refers to spiritual health as many a pastor has said that the physical body "is a means by which the spirit presents itself." Unlike a house that doesn't clean or fix itself up though, if you start to clean up the inside of your body, the outside starts to look better. It is essentially double the reward; put some work in on the inside and both the inside and outside improve.

 

The first body renovation tip is to focus on the inside, not what you see in the mirror. Exercise is the biggest catalyst for "inside" changes so start moving. Everyone misperceives exercise as changing the outside. Well-balanced fitness changes the inside, all the way down to your DNA. The human body is amazing in that you have the ability to re-shape your genetic make-up. You are not in a genetic prison. Straight-up, you have the ability to fix yourself up.

The second renovation tip is to start eating good building products-real food. A past personal trainer colleague of mine once commented on fitness, "when it comes down to it, it's all bodybuilding." The term "bodybuilding" to me doesn't really apply to being muscle-y on stage in a thong as much as it does to proper nutrition, though. Real food builds the body; fast food and processed food tear it down. Eating a balanced breakfast everyday builds the body; skipping breakfast tears it down. Drinking enough water everyday builds the body; soda and coffee tear it down. Consider how many meals in a week you 1) sit down to eat or 2) eat off plates. This may give you an idea how much you have to change your eating habits. Nutrition and a well-balanced fitness program between strength training and cardiovascular conditioning leads to body re-building, not body building.

Consider the third tip as permission to sleep on the job, the renovation job in this case. Your body needs to match the Earth's rotation (your circadian rhythm) by sleeping when it's dark. Unless you aren't human, there are no exceptions to this rule if you want to be healthy and disease repellant. Nevermind the mind-numbing spirit-sucking world of TV, the worst thing about TV is that it deprives people of sleep. The end-of-the-day TV habit displaces good quality sleep time.

The good news is that we can change our habits. The result is a renovated, fixed-up body that we're proud of. As Tara Costa has been repeatedly saying on this season's Biggest Loser (season 7), "I am taking my life back." Tara has lost 117 pounds in 16 weeks. Now that's some serious renovation and trash removal.

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