Not skinny or gaunt bodies.

Other than the obvious reasons that these bodies are deemed to be attractive based on our natural inclination to link fit bodies to physical health, for me, it’s actually a reflection of a person’s mental discipline to take care of themselves.

It’s a form of discipline one takes on to exercise, eat well, and stay on top of things in relation to their health.

It’s the commitment they have made to be fit and stay fit, consistently.

Like all things, it can be akin to a person’s hard work and drive to achieve a good score in their studies, building a business, or hustling to do well in their careers.

But of course, some caution is to be practiced here, that these motivations do not progress to obsession about weight or about looking good for the sake of appearances alone.

There’s a balance between being physically fit, versus being obsessed to be merely thin or building bulk and muscle on the body for appearance’s sake alone.

The end goal is good health, and keeping a good body weight is a big part of this.

What are your thoughts?

There are many scientific based methods to lose weight established out there.

For starters, there is the standard calorie counting method, versus adopting the ketogenic diet where food groups such as carbohydrates are cut out from your meals since they cause a blood glucose spike which causes weight gain.

For exercise, there are strength and resistance training, and calisthenics where muscle building is key to burning more calories at rest, then there’s traditional cardio like jogging, swimming, or even aerobics-based activities like Zumba.

So many resources are now available and sometimes it feels like there is too much information, so which do you choose?

Which would be the most effective to help you achieve weight loss?

In my opinion, the important thing to be considered here is sustainability.

The key is to choose a form of weight loss method that you can adapt to your lifestyle for the long term.

Because it should be a lifestyle change and not a one-off trial that you embark on for a month or so.

This is why juicing and crash diets don’t work, in my opinion, as they cannot be sustained.

And the motivation should be a lifestyle change to achieve a healthier, better you.

One where you are happy, inside and out and not constantly craving food or binge eating after a season of restricting.

So whatever method you choose, make sure you can fit it into your life.

It may look like having a cake and ice cream occasionally and not cutting out completely any specific food, but not eating after 8 pm daily and doing a 10 to 12-hour intermittent fast. It can be doing 10 minutes of strength training in the morning before the kids are awake or deciding to walk more at work to increase your daily calorie burn.

Results may show up slowly, but since you are being consistent, the weight will gradually drop slowly over a few months to a year.

The best part is that you can sustain this lifestyle for life.

Think about it, as this may be a better suit for the average person like myself, and maybe for you too.

And I get to eat the cakes at any birthday party I’m at.

“Room 22” she said, gesturing towards a dark wooden door across the room.

I got up from my chair in the hospital waiting room and went into the doctor’s office. I just had my yearly medical checkup done and was waiting for my consultation. It was a new hospital, and I was one of the few patients they had that day, so the wait wasn’t that long.

Unfortunately for me, I had fasted the night before to get my blood drawn for testing, and by the time I was done with the blood work, I had started to get the sensation of a migraine attack coming.

Hunger, apparently, was one of my many migraine triggers, and I quickly popped an anti-migraine painkiller as soon as I was done with my rounds with the nurses and had some time on my own.

Thirty minutes minimum, and one-hour maximum before some relief from the medication, I told myself internally.

I held in my nausea as I rested in the waiting room, and about fifteen minutes later, I was called in for my consultation.

My head was still throbbing when I was called in, I knocked on the door and greeted the doctor, and took my seat in front of her.

She looked young, maybe in her late twenties to early thirties, and had a somewhat chilly appearance. It probably had been a long day for her, I thought to myself.

She reviewed my results, went down the list of data and numbers, and cleared me of many concerns, the only outlier in the report was that I was high in my cholesterol, but due to my age she advised me to exercise to reduce it. That was that, I thought.

Then she looked at me and asked me, what other concerns did I have and any questions on my general health.

I looked back at her, hesitated internally for a bit, then I opened up about my migraine history and that I was having one now, controlled by painkillers, and how I have always managed it.

She advised me that migraines were sometimes due to inflammation, or constricted blood vessels in my head since mine occurred always on the same spot. I had known some of this from prior research and previous doctor consults, and it was good to get the advice of another doctor on how to manage it, I thought.

She understood the medications I took to control the pain, and we talked about the triggers, and how even some foods and our hormone changes can aggravate it.

Then she proposed to me to try meditation to stop the pain from my migraine attacks.

I was taken aback, but I continued to listen to her advice on these alternative methods.

She said I could try to talk to myself in the mirror in the morning, before I start my day, to think positive thoughts and remind myself that there will be no migraines today. She talked about how to meditate daily in my life, and how it would prevent my pain.

She couldn’t see it nor hear it, but the door in my mind was slowly starting to shut, creaking all the way till the door closed.

My face appeared the same of course, I had learned not to change my facial features in conversations with people, basically, I had practiced my poker face. Honestly, I probably stared at her and nodded at the right cues.

I thanked her for her time, took my written report, and left her office once we were done.

But as I was walking out, I was feeling surprised, annoyed, and clearly flabbergasted at her final suggestions on how to prevent or cure myself of the pain which I had endured for the past 14 years since my adolescence. I thought we were having a conversation about how migraines happened and the medical background for it.

She’s a doctor by profession, a woman of science, I thought, so where did the homeopathy and positive thinking methods come from?

To be clear, I do not think I can positively think myself out of a migraine attack. I had struggled to control my nausea and was trying not to vomit as it is. All I wanted was to hide my head under a pillow and be alone in a dark, silent room and wait out the pain.

I concluded that humans, despite what we learned in school and what we practice in our daily profession, we will still be prone to our own personal beliefs. What she spoke about clearly clashed with her understanding of how pain occurs in the body, in terms of medical science.

But still, I thought logic and medicine would have prevailed for her.

I may have been too hard on the doctor, I thought to myself.

I mean, just because someone does not apply the same logical rules and reasoning as you do, does not make them inferior in their approach.

But it does make them appear to have less credibility, doesn’t it?

Let me know your thoughts, maybe I am being mean, but one has to make a personal stand on these matters too, shouldn’t we?