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Feeling Comfortable in Your Own Skin

Take control

By Jeannette PerezPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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Staying active

While waiting to board an airplane on my way home from the Dominican Republic, I was facing the stairs and could see other travelers walking to their gate. I was flying back to Miami, and there was another flight going to New York City. I noticed something about the young girls and guys headed back to New York City: Nine out of ten were overweight.

This is not the first time I caught myself noticing how many people are just letting themselves go. When I look at all these beautiful young ladies, I actually feel sorry for most of them. I can see their insecurities right through them.

Sometimes, I wish I can just approach them and give them hope, because, there is hope! All it takes is self-motivation and the desire to look and feel better about ourselves.

There is one huge problem that is affecting most of us, and that is being inactive. Kids go to school and sit for seven to eight hours a day, just to go home and sit or lay for the rest of the day, playing video games or watching TV while eating unhealthy meals and drinking lots of soda. Most adults go to work, come home complaining of being tired, and use that as an excuse for not exercising.

We, as parents, need to be the first ones to set the example. We need to start making the right choices by preparing our own home-cooked meals for our family, and by exercising every single day.

I just want to remind all of you that want to feel comfortable in your own skin that you are in total control of your body. You just have to start making healthier choices. Start by waking up an hour earlier than usual and going for a walk. You can start with only 30 minutes a day, then gradually increase it by an extra ten minutes a day. Soon, you will start to notice that you are slowly building stamina. When you build stamina, your body will require a bit more intense exercise than when you started, and you will slowly start feeling this because your body talks to you. Though you can't hear your body talking to you, you can actually feel body-sensations that make you aware that you are doing something wonderful for yourself. For example, when you start exercising and you begin to feel your muscles getting stronger, suddenly something throws you off your exercise regimen and you stop for, let's say two weeks. When you lay down to sleep, your muscles send you signals. They start to ache. This in turn confuses you, because it makes you think that you need to give yourself a break, and this can cause you to give up again. This is when you need to get going all over again. Do not give up—those body aches are simply telling you, "I miss when you put me to work!"

When we let ourselves go and we become overweight, we tend to give up on ourselves, and we keep eating more and more and more, and getting lazier as the days go by. We have absolutely no energy whatsoever to want to get up from the couch. We gasp for air whenever we have to go up some stairs, and all we want to do is to sit down and rest.

Well, one of the biggest problems we face today is that technology is making us fat. Why? Because we sit in front of a computer all day at work, or in front of a TV, and sometimes both. Others prefer to be on their tablet or smart phone while working, and after work, just browse through social media.

My advice to you is to get up and get moving, and when it comes to eating, stop buying junk food. Change soda for water, and the easiest way to do that is to simply not buy soda or sweet drinks. Just have water in your fridge. When I was in my thirties, I noticed that my metabolism started slowing down. I was gaining weight without control. I took charge of my life by exercising every single day for an hour before going to work; by staying active at home after work, cleaning up and organizing; and by preparing my own healthy meals. If I can do it, so can you! Get off your couch, get off your tablet, turn off your TV, go join a gym, and keep yourself busy—active-busy, that is!

Forget about other people and what they are doing. Go out there and do you! And remember, consistency is the key to success. Do not give up! Fall in love with yourself all over again; get the dream body you want. We are just a pack of bones with meat hanging over us. When we exercise, we burn fat and we build muscle. When we build muscle, the meat hanging over us starts taking shape, and you start feeling tighter, you start liking yourself when you look at yourself in the mirror, you start seeing an enhanced silhouette definition of your muscular body, and this simply motivates you to keep going.

I personally look at it this way: When I was fat and lazy, feeling like a couch potato, I had no energy and was always tired. I had body aches all the time. After I took control of my life and decided to join a gym and go for a walk every day, and change my life around by eating healthier meals and staying active most of the time, my body is still aching, but I'm having muscular aches from exercising, and that way of hurting makes me feel so good about myself, and now I always feel full of energy.

Let's do this!

fitness
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About the Creator

Jeannette Perez

Founder & CEO of "Epic Credit Score Solutions"

Certified Plan Based Nutritionist ie. Cornell University

Hobbies: Reading, writing, self publisher, fitness and health interests.

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