That's right! I said it! I regret NOTHING! Exercise is for losers. I see you running and lifting weights. I see you with those smug grins on your faces and that sense of community that you call "camaraderie." I see it all. You think you're special, huh? You think that you are somehow different than the rest of the world because you get up every day and find a way to move and twist your body in all kinds of weird ways to drop weight or get in shape. Don't even get me started on counting calories! Isn't that something? Instead of enjoying the Earth's bountiful harvest, you have to pause every single day to critique and criticize it instead of stuffing your face and just letting it be! So yeah, you guys are total and complete LOSERS! Here's the thing though: So am I!
We exercise to lower our carbon footprint. We exercise to better our minds, our temples (the body) and our spirits. We exercise to inspire others not to our full potential, but to their own personal potential. We are special because we have chosen to read the labels. We have chosen to not blindly indulge in the man made foods that continue to draw us away from our natural selves year after year. I'm no conspiracy theorist, but I sometimes wonder if the food companies are in cahoots with pharmaceutical companies. Think about it! There is no cure for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, or general obesity. These things, outside of exercise (unless it’s a genetic predisposition) can only be "treated" with expensive drugs and therapies, but I digress!
We choose to move and twist our bodies, as our primal ancestors did, for the very same reason: SURVIVAL! Sure, we're no longer being chased by Mammoths and Saber tooth tigers (unless you're that homeless guy that sits outside of my workplace), but we are being chased by all manners of malicious ailments threatening our way of life and ultimately our very existence. We have chosen to eschew complacency and embrace change the likes of which Obama could have never hoped to manifest.
During Thanksgiving, I was telling my uncle-in-law that I was planning on eating like never before. However, I was going to be logging every calorie that I consumed. He gave me this look and asked "So you're one of THEM?" You know what uncle-in-law (who is in great shape by the way)? You're damned right I'm one of them. If that is what my journey involves, then that is what I'm going to do. If that is how I define my success, then 2 minutes in front of a computer or on my phone logging calories isn't going to burden anyone but myself. I will eat the biggest, greasiest burger and top it off with a beer with you, but you best believe your tight glutes that I'm going to log it!
The camaraderie cannot be underestimated either. We need support like your grandmother who just got into running needs a sports bra (seriously... someone needs to talk to her ASAP). It reinvigorates us and keeps us in check with our goals, both realistically and otherwise. So we're all losers in this game. We are losing complacency. We are losing fat. We are losing depression, shame, fatigue, and self loathing. With all this losing, it's a wonder we gain anything at all. We do gain many things, of course, but there is something that is gained that trumps all others: We gain our true SELVES! Keeping rocking and being BAWSS!
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