If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be, and what would you do if later on you changed your mind?
Well this one is tricky. I answered it straight away in my head and said ‘I would want to be slimmer!’ And then I thought about it a bit more. Not only is that completely untrue, but it also gives completely the wrong impression of myself. The truer answer is ‘I want to be healthier,’ and everything that comes from that just leads on afterwards.
I just spend some time looking at MSN’s editors pictures of the week. 42 pictures of celebrities in all their various guises, going about their lives. Every single one of them; thin as a twig. Its not right. The only one of them who I’m certain is ‘healthy’ rather than ‘skinny’ is David Beckham. As a footballer, there is a certain level of fitness you have to acquire and maintain to be able to do the work that he does. So his physique is a lot to do with that. The rest of them are just frighteningly, dreadfully, painfully thin. Not slim, because that’s different; these women are thin. And its unhealthy.
So I would change how healthy I am. I would want to be more healthy and, most pleasing of all, is the fact that its something that I can change. Its something that I’ve been working on in truth.
I’ve lost two stone in the last year (I put one back on again, but that’s really not the point). Just as a result of loosing that little bit of weight, my skin and mood have improved, I’m sleeping better, I’m more active. There are lots of things that go hand in hand with that. And I lost that weight because I began to change my lifestyle to one that was slightly more healthy. No crazy crash diets (diet is a swear word in my house!), just looking at what I’m eating and changing it. Riding my bike more. Walking to work. Laying off the sugar and chocolate and crisps. All things that are very small changes, that have a very positive effect on my health.
I can’t imagine ever wanting to be less healthy. That’s slightly crazy, which is why this question is one that I’m sure was meant to be answered in a physical sense. Unfortunately, the physicalities of my body aren’t where my primary focus tends to fall. Maybe if I gave myself more fingers I’d be able to type faster. That would be cool. Or I could give myself longer hair or eyelashes. They’re all small, petty, cosmetic things that, in the grand scheme of things, don’t really mean much.
Saying that… I will stick with my original answer. I would change my health; I would increase it, and my fitness. If I ever changed my mind, then that would be easy to remedy; I guess I could go back to having a takeaway every week and chocolate every day or something daft like that. I’d soon change my mind again!
My 80 Post Challenge is brought to you with help from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts.
Writing: A Conversation Without Interruptions 
When I went from being obese to being normal it was just through doing all the things we’ve been told to do since childhood – eating the right foods, doing the right kind of exercise and just, generally, listening to my body. You see friends after their latest crash diets and, yeah, they’ve lost two stone in a month or whatever but their skin is haggard, they’re always tired and their eyes are spotted and dull. Losing weight, in this day and age, is rarely the same as “being healthy”. Losing weight doesn’t automatically make one healthy but a healthy person will eventually reach a normal weight for them. I enjoy having energy, I enjoy having good skin and I enjoy being creative with what I eat. I fully support all you have said here and I 100% support you in it 🙂
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Thanks for your comments, hon. I’m glad to know that people agree.
Body image has become such a big deal these days, but its for all the wrong reasons. One’s health should be first and foremost, then once that’s achieved, if you look like Keira Knightley then fair play.
Though I doubt that would be the case because I doubt that she can easily hold her own body weight with legs that thin!
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