Chasing Elusive Results

Reconnecting with the vitality of our bodies

Many people turn to health and fitness driven by dissatisfaction with their appearance, often seeking dramatic weight loss or a sculpted muscular physique. But our bodies are intricately balanced ecosystems, built for survival - for movement and exploration. Our fixation on fitness merely as a tool for improving our appearance has distanced us from the reality that our bodies are systems to be nurtured, not machines to be controlled.

We often feel shame or even desperation before contemplating change. Setting goals around shedding pounds or achieving a six-pack may seem like a rational antidote to our current dissatisfaction. We want results and we’re keen to get on with the necessary work to get those desired results.

Yet, the results we chase are likely to prove elusive. Frustration sets in, willpower wanes, and we find ourselves slipping back into old habits. For many of us, this pattern repeats in a perpetual cycle of hope and disillusionment.

Perhaps we need a shift in mindset - one that redefines our relationship with our bodies.

What if we viewed our bodies not as machines to optimise but as living, organic systems to nurture and cultivate? We often approach fitness mechanistically - calories in, calories out - missing the deeper truth that our bodies are an ecosystem imbued with a vitalism, a mysterious life force that distinguishes us from the inputs and outputs of machines.

Exercise isn’t just about burning calories. It’s about discovering what our body can do, learning how it responds, and how it functions as a complex ecosystem. Exercise reconnects us to the vitality of our body, and builds confidence in our ability to get it to work with it, to listen to it, to care for it.

What if we aimed to learn how to embrace the uncertainty of achieving our desired results, focusing instead on health mastery - the consistent practice of a healthy lifestyle over a lifetime to be fully connected to our body? This would mean seeing exercising and eating well as an act of reverence and respect for our bodies with a curiosity about their potential instead of a means to improve our appearance.

The results we envision may come, or they may not. Physical appearance is influenced by countless factors - body type, fat distribution, metabolism, genetics, muscle composition, age, bone structure, and posture. Our bodies are unique, organic systems that grow and develop in their own way - not necessarily towards the youthful, slim, muscular ideals we aspire to in our imagination.

Once we’ve become acquainted with the capability of our bodies we’re in a better place to pursue results, just as the confident athlete plays at the edges of their capabilities, striving for improved performance goals. However, that confidence is achieved by gaining an intimate knowledge of one’s physical capabilities and limitations through years of patient practice.

Can we learn to value the pursuit of health for its own sake? Deeper satisfaction comes not from chasing imagined aesthetics but from mindful stewardship of the bodies we inhabit.