We all want to look good and feel good about ourselves but at what cost? Do we really need to go to the gym 5-6x/week and perform endless hours of cardiovascular activity, while avoiding social functions where we might be tempted to “cheat” on our diets just so that we can appear as if we have the perfect looking physique? Is it really necessary for us to become slaves to our aesthetics and live a life that revolves around our training schedules and what we can and cannot put into our bodies in fear of making us fat?

Have you turned your dedication to improving upon your health into an obsession of developing the perfect physique? Don’t worry you’re not alone.

Exercise addiction is actually more common then most people may think, and just like any obsession, too much of it can be a bad thing. In many cases this addiction can turn into a severe case of body dysmorphia, which can eventually lead to an eating disorder. In many competitive and even non competitive athletes, the desire to be the best and look the best can lead to the usage and sometimes even abusage of anabolic steroids and pharmaceutical fat burners. When used improperly or for an extended period of time, these prescription based drugs can have life altering effects on our kidneys, liver and heart, not to mention the many other common health issues that can become prevalent with the long term use and abuse of improper supplementation.

If you know that you’re starting to, or perhaps already heading down a dangerous path with your health, it’s still not too late to stop and regain control over your body. But before you take control of your body, you need to retake control over your mind.

Go Back to the Beginning 

We were all once beginners to exercise, and the gym itself was once considered to be a foreign place to many of us. Think back as to why you started to exercise more frequently and why you began to follow a strict and clean eating nutritional program. I can almost guarantee you that your main intentions for making these changes was to look better, feel better and become overall more healthy and fit. And after a few short months, you started to notice your body changing for the better. Your pants became looser in your waist, your butt appeared to be more round and firm, and your arms and shoulders started to develop some actual definition. You also noticed you had more energy throughout the day. You slept better at night and felt less stressed and anxious throughout the day. And all of this was due to the simple fact that you started to live a more active and fit lifestyle.

And Then It Wasn’t’ Enough….

After a year or so of living as a fitness fanatic you started to notice that your body stoped changing as quickly as it was before. You began comparing yourself to others around you and the results that they had achieved with their own physiques. The additional energy that you had now acquired through regular exercise and a healthy diet, became a feeling of normalcy and you no longer felt any different then you had a few months earlier. Suddenly your motivation and desire to go the gym and workout had disappeared due to hitting this proverbial plateau with both your physique and training. You had a choice – Give Up or Push Harder. You decided to push harder.

All or Nothing

I hate to break it to you, but we all eventually will hit a plateau with our training and our physiques. How we decide to surpass these plateaus will be dependent on how much we as individuals are willing to sacrifice to make our goals become a reality. Some people are willing to do anything to achieve their goals, while others are simply satisfied with the results that they have achieved and would simply just like to maintain their condition and continue to work upon improving their overall health. For the people who desire more, it’s important to remember to not let your training and aesthetic goals take precedence over you overall health and lifestyle though. These people need to make sure that they are in constant control of their emotions and don’t let their short term goals of perfecting their physique cloud their better judgement to achieving their ultimate goal, which should be to live a long, productive and healthy life.

Reality Check

There’s more to life then six packs, perky butts and bulging biceps. There are real issues in the world today and to be honest, no one really cares how you look except for you. Sure, you can use your body to promote a healthy lifestyle and inspire others to become more active and fit. And yes, you should use your knowledge of proper diet, training and supplementation, to help educate others who are not has informed as you on these subjects, and could benefit from your advice and opinions. But don’t think for one moment that developing the perfect body is going to make you happy and content. Another fact that I hate to break to you is that we’re all eventually going to get older. And as we get older our bodies will change. Not necessarily for the worse, however it will become more difficult to maintain that six pack and perky bum when you’re in your 70s and 80s. And if all you have going for you is a nice looking body, but no original thoughts, or human compassion and decency for others, then that is very unfortunate and as such, I feel deeply sorrow for you.

“We were meant to be perfectly imperfect.”

Nick Cosgrove
Forever Fit