Body Image

             I  never cease to be amazed by folks' conversations about their bodies especially for the past ten years since I have been a certified Personal Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor.  Apparently, everyone, male and female, is obsessed with body image these days.  

            When practically any random individual learns I am in the ‘body’ business, somehow they feel compelled to sit me down to have my complete attention so they can share their life stories with me, embracing every detail of their eating habits and exercise programs, how they used to be thin, why they gained all of this weight, the myriad of fad diets they have tried, and what they’re doing now to get thin again.  This could occur at just about any time or place:  traveling on an airplane, lunching in a Chicago restaurant, shopping for athletic shoes at Niketown in New York City, or waiting for a shampoo and blow out at a local hair salon. 

          Should the subject  come up, people stand up tall, throw their heads back with their eyes afire, and exclaim with amazement, ‘you are a trainer?!?!’.  Then they begin their stories and questions.  I hear about Pilates’ routines and Bikram yoga practices [which consist of performing non-stop asanas for over an hour in a room heated to 100 degrees during the summer, fall, winter and spring].  Total strangers offer me details of their cardio and weight lifting routines;  kick-boxing, cardio-pump and zumba classes; who their trainers and group fitness instructors are, and why they like or dislike them.  They also share tales of the sports they play and the injuries they have incurred, the orthopedic surgeries, and the physical therapy, too. 

Truly, I consider myself part of the ‘health’ industry.  I got into the profession because I was motivated to become healthier and to stay that way for life and wished to share that notion with others.  I strive to stave off cancer and heart disease which had taken the lives of my parents.   In my view,  proper nutrition is a major component of the fitness equation, and the benefits of well-being such as controlling weight, blood pressure, diabetes, and effects of menopause [when appropriate] are the best rewards; and becoming strong, fit, and looking good are simply byproducts of the effort.