Health Managment vs. Weight Managment

With the new year coming up everyone will be making their infamous new year resolutions. The promises people make to themselves to finally keep and change their life around in one or more areas. Typically this is in the categories of addictions, money management, health, etc. Health is the one I hear the most. Every year I listen to people tell me that as of 12:00 am January 1st they will officially start their journey towards losing XX amount of weight. Gym memberships sell like "hot cakes" every year at this time in anticipation of these goals.

I feel like I'm getting off the main topic that I intended on voicing in this post. I came across an article this morning that can be found on the Salt Lake Tribune website. I remember taking courses at Grand Valley State University and having a profound revelation when I heard that many people focus on losing weight as the key indicator for health rather than overall health/wellness as the key indicator. There are many discouraged people and wasted gym memberships by the end of January when individuals don't see the numbers decreasing on the scale daily. Most people think that if there is no weight loss then they are not accomplishing anything and their hard work in the gym is all for naught. This is not the case. It will be difficult but there needs to be a change in mentality of people in regards to health. When someone begins working out for the first time in awhile they most likely are  buildling muscle at the same time they are losing fat. If they lose 5 pounds of fat but gain 5 pounds of muscle is this a good thing? Of course it is but the scale does not reflect any positive reinforcement. We need to begin to focus on managing health instead of managing weight. If we can start doing this then the weight loss will inevitably occur. Muscle burns more energy then fat does. As we develop more muscle we will expend more energy in our regular day to day activities, which will in turn speed up the weight loss process. But it needs to be realized as a process. Until we can understand that health managment is the goal and weight management is the by-product then failure will be a regular occurance.

Stay consistent. Don't lose your motivation. Find different ways other than weight to focus on in order to gauge the effectiveness of your work. Enjoy the process. Find someone to enjoy it with. Strive to be healthier in all categories of health, not just in that of weight.