You either want to look better or you don’t. You either want to FEEL better or you don’t. You either want to be healthier or you don’t.
It’s time for all the people out there who complain about the way they look or feel to finally just DO something about it! Everyone has an excuse. I’m tired, I’m overworked, there aren’t enough hours in the day. I had this conversation with my mother last night. She’s the world’s toughest person to motivate and always has a reason why she can’t accommodate every single little suggestion. Then she’ll say, “you’re right, OK, I can do that” and she never will. Remember the yoga challenge? While I’m proud of her for doing yoga a few times at home from a yoga TV program, she still has yet to actually take a class with an instructor that could encourage her, motivate her, and most importantly correct her form so she gets the most benefit out of it!
While I was talking to her I realized that New York City is a totally different world from most of the country. My mother, at 60, thinks of herself as old in many respects. She thinks many activities or fun, trendy clothes are only for “young” people. Most of my clients are between the ages of 40 and 65. And not a single one of them gives excuses about why they aren’t where they could be. If they know they need to lose weight, they tell me they’re on a program to do so…. Most of them are active business folks. Bankers, lawyers, corporate folks or on the other side of the spectrum I have the artistic Broadway performers crowd. But they all have one thing in common: they all don’t seem to consider their age as a factor for holding them back from anything. I had a 65 year old banker on the table the other day who was really sore because he’s training for his first marathon and ran 18 miles the day before. Think about the average 65 year old in your life (especially if they don’t live in an energetic urban environment like NYC)… Could they run a marathon? I have 45 year old moms who come into the chiropractor’s office after hanging up the phone with their boss and tell me about the yoga class they took that morning or the gardening they did all weekend. I have a 64 year old male client who runs a bank, and takes 7am spin class 3 times a week, yoga twice a week, and a posture stabilizing class, then gets on the massage table and tells me about having a few too many glasses of wine at a cocktail party over the weekend. Do these sound like the people in your life with those same ages?
My clients work 40 - 100 hours a week in some cases, but there they are, scheduling time to take care of themselves because they know it’s not an option. When they wait too long between sessions, they come in complaining saying “I don’t know why I just don’t do this more often.” Life does get busy, and things do get in the way, but what good are you to the rest of the possibilities in life if you’re being held hostage by your own skin?
So please people! Enough with the reasons why you can’t lose weight, can’t eat a healthy breakfast, can’t get to the gym more than once a year…. Stop being jealous of the people who look great in their clothes, or who have glowing skin, or who have well functioning digestive tracts… Sure they must all just be “lucky”. Those “lucky” genes ya know? It’s a rare genetic disorder these days to look and feel healthy.
I hear at least 3 times a week from people whether I know them or they are a new client, “aww, you’re so tiny!” Yes, I’m a petite person, but I work really hard to look and feel the way I do. Sometimes I get lazy and and I stop and overeat for a while, but then I start to feel like everyone else in the country who is bloated and unhappy so I snap myself out of it and go back to working hard- and feeling happy and optimistic again. It’s a continuous life long cycle, but the lazy cycles definitely get shorter and shorter as you go. And the truth of the matter is that, yes I’m short, we all know this (unless you’re reading this and have never met me), but I’m what the medical community deems as a standard level of good health as far as height/weight ratios go. I’m 5 feet tall and fluctuate 1 to 2 pounds above and below the 100lb mark. To get a very rough estimate of a healthy weight for a certain height (this doesn’t take into account many considerations, but it can give some idea) is to figure about 100 lbs for the first 5 feet of height (in a woman) and add 3 pounds for every inch of height above that. (Not sure what the numbers for men are) Muscle weighs about 30% more than fat so the number on a scale can be misleading, so go by how you FEEL. Just learn to know your own body and the weight range for when you start to feel unwell, versus when you feel really fit and happy and everything seems to be functioning smoothly.
I’m not a special case! I’m not “lucky”. I’m just a typical New Yorker trying to do it all and maintain my health in the process. Anyone can do that. You don’t have to be born that way. You don’t have to be a specific age. If you want to change, then just do it! The only reason why you can’t is your own head.
It comes down to making a simple decision: You either want to be healthy, and all the good that comes of it….. or you don’t.
