Body Positivity But Don't Forget About Your Health

Body positivity is a great movement that helps put light on the issue of unrealistic beauty standards. It's about accepting your body for what it is. However, in the case of being overweight (or under weight), accepting your body and accepting the health issues that may come with it are 2 different things. One can feel beautiful, while not fitting in the unrealistic beauty standards set by various marketing companies, while still looking out for one's Health.

"You can't change what you can tolerate."

-Myles Monroe

Accept yourself for who you are but don't accept your health problem if there's something you can do about them. Doctors are quick to give us drugs for the various ailments when really they should encourage people to make better life choices.

When I first started on my fitness journey, I used to think that having big arms would make me happy. Then I got big arms and it didn't make me happy.  Then I thought that if I had bigger legs then I would be happy but it didn't... it took me a while to realize that being happy isn't tied to how I look in the mirror. There are just as many people slim and depressed than they are people that are overweight and happy. 

I will say this, however, how you feel and what you eat, or do with your body, is directly related. If you don't exercise, and eat like junk, you will be more likely to feel like junk than if you exercise and eat what your body needs.

Feel good about yourself but don't forget about your Health.

"Ant Farm" theories and Creationism

Man has wondered about his origin for has long as he was able to think for himself. The theories we're going to discuss today were created in ancient Greece at a time when Philosophy and Science was one of the same. In fact, the term "Scientists" was only coined in 1833. In ancient Greece, when a Philosopher thought of a theory he wouldn't necessarily need to prove, via the scientific method, that it made sense before sharing it with the world. A lot of those theories didn't stick but some have and are still with us today even though, from a scientific perspective, they make no sense.

The following are a group of theories that fits well, at least to me, together and have all been created at roughly the same time by Greek Philosophers. In Chronological orders, those are:

1. The Earth Is Flat - According to Wikipedia, the idea of a flat Earth first originated in the 6th century B.C. by a Philosopher named Pythagoras.
2. Creationism - According to Wikipedia, the creationist theory originated in the 5th century B.C.
3. The Earth is at the Center of the Universe - According to Wikipedia this theory is, again, attributed to a Greek Philosopher in the 4th century B.C.

These 3 theories seems to have been created to complement each other and I like to call the combination the "Ant Farm" mindset. An Ant Farm is finite (Earth Is Flat), everything in it has been placed there by someone (Creationism) and it's location is at the center of a kid's room (The Earth is at the Center of the Universe). It make sense for a theory, such as Creationism, to exist in a world where "The Earth is Flat" and "We're at the Center of the Universe" exists but since both those theories have been nullified - why, then, is Creationism still around?

Religion is why Creationism is still around, and thriving, today. There's no doubt in my mind that the book of Genesis is an extension of the Creationism theory as it was widely accepted at the time of Jesus.

A religion is a work of Philosophy and every religion has a story on how everything began. The answer to the questions related to our origins is too important and should be answered with science - not faith. There's no value in keeping debunked theories around. Let's keep what make sense and move away from the things that don't.

Creationism originated from the mind of a Philosopher in Ancient Greece. Why are we still debating whether or not the theory is true considering it didn't even come from "divine origins" or observable evidence? We have to remember that Creationism was created at a time when people would sacrifice animals to Gods, for protection, and act on dreams because they believed it had divine significance. 

These things might of made sense then but it doesn't anymore.

The Dwayne Johnson Football Dream

If you know anything about today's movies then you've likely heard about Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Before Dwayne Johnson was an actor and wrestler he was someone that wanted to play in the NFL but ultimately failed to do so. Fast forward to 2020 and Dwayne Johnson now owns the XFL - a Football league that, while small, has plenty of potential to grow.

What this tells me is that Dwayne never let go of his original dream of being involved in Football. Sure, he never played professionally but he did some acting related to it and now owns a league. I doubt owning the XFL was part of Dwayne's plan in his youth since the league wasn't around then but when you stick to your goals the world seems to create opportunities for you.

“If you want something you've never had

You must be willing to do something you've never done.”

-Thomas Jefferson

Not many of us have dreams that we work towards and, from those that do, even less continue on after hitting failures. It may have taken Dwayne a few decades to achieve his dream but the important thing is that he did. How many of us can go through decades before eventually getting our dreams? Most of us can't even wait until our food is done in the microwave - let alone wait decades for anything.

Never loose sight of your dreams.

Where's the Valor?

Valor is an incentive most often attributed to military focused societies as it is a quality one gets from exhibiting great courage in battle. 

With the rise of technology one has to wonder where is the Valor today? Our wars haven't stopped but the way we fight has changed. Some people don't even need to be physically present on the battlefield anymore. How can a soldier, who is taught that great deeds on the field of battle brings valor, earn valor when he's placed in a situation where he can't exhibit great courage as he's fighting in-front of a monitor rather than the trenches?

Valor has inspired soldiers for thousands of years but technology seems to have taken it away from them. If valor is no longer attainable for a soldier then what other moral incentive is used to inspire? 

After reading a few books on Alexander The Great, there are plenty of times where valor, or battle recognition, was the sole motivator of the soldiers. After all, the Greeks were military focused. If this is what inspired the soldiers then... what inspires them now?  Is the career soldier more of a job nowadays than anything else? There's definitively still recognition to be found as a soldier but, like most everything else, it changed.

We Should Be Better Than the Spartans

You can probably tell that I've been reading about Greek history based on my few recent blog posts. Who ever read about Greek history likely learned about the reputation of the Spartans. For those of you who haven't, the Spartans were a Greek military society who's military, and fitness, prowess are forever remembered as being the best of its time.

If I was in charge of a nation I would make it like Sparta - not from a military perspective, as I'm not a man of war and I believe that the only war we should be fighting are the ones found withing ourselves, but from a fitness perspective.

Wouldn't it be great to live in a society largely focused on fitness? It's kind of weird to live in a society that understand the various issues the body can have if it's not treated properly and yet we "fix" those issues via medicine rather than lifestyle changes.
The Spartans didn't know anything about heart diseases, cholesterol and high blood pressure but they understood that being fit meant that they performed better on the battlefield. We know more about fitness, dieting, diseases... than the Spartans did and yet so few seems to be taking advantage of this knowledge. With all the knowledge we have we should be remembered as the fitness civilization in history but there are far more people overweight than people that are fit.

"Without knowledge action is useless and knowledge without action is futile."

-Abu Bakr

The knowledge to be fit is available to us all but few are consuming it and even fewer are applying it. You don't need to understand everything to get some good results you just need to start. If I had any degree of control over a nation fitness is definitely something that I would promote. Vote for me?