Love Your Body Like Your Dog
“Treat your body like it belongs to someone you love.”
Key Takeaways
With respect to health and fitness, you can interpret the phrase “love your body” in many different ways.
The way you express love for your body can be focused solely on pleasure and instant gratification, or it can be centered around discipline and long term health.
We know the best way to care for a dog to keep him/her healthy and happy over the long term, but when it comes to our own health the best choice isn’t always so clear.
We often confuse “loving our body” for giving it what it wants instead of what it needs.
The majority of the time, to truly love our bodies, we need to buckle down and make the healthy choice instead of the easy choice.
Full Story
There’s no better time than Valentine’s Day to discuss love! With respect to health and fitness, you can interpret the phrase “love your body” in many different ways. The way you express love for your body can be focused solely on pleasure and instant gratification, or it can be centered around discipline and long term health.
Many cite this sentiment as permission to throw both caution to the wind and the tastiest fried or sugary treat down their gullet. “I love my body, I give it whatever it wants, whenever it wants.” This is an illogical and dangerous mindset.
To others, “love yourself” means taking steps each day to improve their health. By eating well, performing frequent physical activity, and prioritizing sleep, they invest today in exchange for more energy and less sickness later on. If you really love your body, you care for it responsibly.
Treat Your Body Like You Treat Your Dog
Loving your body like you would your dog means to prioritize long term health and happiness over short term reward. Consider the approach you take to caring for your dog (if you don’t have a dog, just imagine a really cute one or think about caring for someone else you love). For the sake of simplicity, let’s call your dog “Pancake.” If you love her, you wouldn’t:
Let Pancake lay sprawled out on the floor all day
Let Pancake skip her daily walks
Keep Pancake’s food bowl topped off 24/7
Feed Pancake peanut butter and chocolate for every meal
Feed Pancake pancakes
Even though she’d really the enjoy unlimited lounging and bottomless bowls (can you imagine the uncontrollable tail wags?), you wouldn’t ever care for Pancake in such a reckless way. Pancake would be in absolute heaven for a bit, until she succumbed to poor health and disease.
If you cared for Pancake in the same way many approach their health and fitness, i.e. having no plan and doing whatever feels good, you would have a sad, sick pup on your hands. Not to mention, PETA would be knocking on your door in a heartbeat.
Today, ask yourself a very important question: Are you a Pancake? Are your actions more in line with:
“I love my body. I’m going to nourish and train it so that I can stay healthy for as long as possible.”
Or is your reasoning more along the lines of:
“I love my body. I’m going to succumb to every biological urge to be sedentary and consume whatever sounds good. Pizza or cheeseburgers tonight?”
If you resonate more with the latter as opposed to former, some self-reflection may be in order.
We know the best way to care for a dog to keep him/her healthy and happy over the long term, but when it comes to our own health the best choice isn’t always so clear. When we make decisions about working out or food our judgement is clouded by:
Hormones
Emotions
Energy Levels
Commercials
Warm Couches
Warm Cookies
Netflix
As a result, we often confuse “loving our body” for giving it what it wants instead of what it needs. Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly occasions - birthdays, holidays, Valentine’s Day 😉- when moderation and health concerns go out the window! But, the majority of the time, to truly love our bodies we need to buckle down and make the healthy choice instead of the easy choice.
Wrap Up
Sorry for the tough love!
“Treat your body like it belongs to someone you love.” Framed in this way, the actions you take that truly express love for your body begin to look different. Loving your body (most of the time) means:
Choosing foods based on nutritional rather than hedonistic value
Sticking to a consistent exercise routine
Managing stress
Getting quality sleep each night
Prioritizing a sustainable and enjoyable approach to health and fitness
If you need help figuring out how to make choices that align with loving your body, feel free to reach out - I’m here to help!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
John
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