“She’s so skinny! I wish I looked like her!” This refrain is heard all too often pretty much everywhere you go. There is a common misconception that skinny=fit or skinny=healthy. Gladly, I know enough people who would prove that theory VERY incorrect. I’ll deal with this from 2 angles.

In my last two articles, I defined fitness and even broke it down into eleven different components which can be worked on individually or in any combination. Being healthy is a general state of physical, emotional and mental well-being. You can improve your physical and emotional (and, to an extent, mental) health by becoming fit. Therefore, health and fitness are two separate things that can work together. Notice that neither in the definition (and my elucidation) of fitness nor in that of health does the word skinny (or any similar words) appear.

Interestingly enough, I know people who are skinny but VERY unhealthy. I once did a peer counselling course where we dealt with the topic of health. To get us to understand a bit more about it, the tutor of that module brought his calipers and checked our body fat %. The slimmest person there also had the highest body fat %. This actually shows that she may have been the least healthy person on that course. I also know people with huge “guts” who can run a 5k (5 kilometre race) in 25 minutes or less.

So what does “fit” look like? The female bodybuilder who people say “looks like a man”; the beer-belly guy who runs 5 and 10k races at least once a month; the gym-goer with bulging muscles; the skinny yoga instructor; the “big girl” who comfortably does box jump burpees — these are all “looks” of fitness and health. Basically, there is no specific look, so there is no need to get jealous of someone else who is slimmer, bigger or more muscular than you.

The better approach is to not chase a “look” of fitness or health, but to rather go after actually being fit and healthy. Eat a balanced diet, try to get enough sleep, start to exercise and try to remove yourself from stressful situations. 😉