Often times, due to the human desire to measure and understand, fitness is assigned a value. A number on a scale, an amount of weight lifted, a distance covered on foot (timed), or calories consumed are all metrics used to measure various activities involved with aspects of fitness.
Numbers are great for goal setting, for monitoring progress, for adjusting behavior, and challenging one’s self. Numbers are not the end-all-be-all for health or fitness. On a practical note, we all know of individuals who eat garbage and don’t gain a pound. On a philosophical note, fitness is not “won” or “achieved” per se. It is a process of making continual investments in your self over a lifetime. Fitness is not how many times you went to the gym this week. Fit people treat themselves in a way that is counter-intuitive to our society, but this is just a portion of the journey. There are people around the country who are all at various stages of the journey. Whether just buying their first pair of running shoes at 14 years old or making life saving diet changes after being diagnosed with a metabolic disease.
Missing workouts, missing meals or missing sleep is frustrating and certainly affects your health. It does not damn you to the realm of the dysfunctional if you choose to study over working out. Sleeping-in doesn’t bump you into category of lazy normally reserved for Egyptian Pharos: hand fed gluttons who only consumed luxury and produced pain, dystopia and extravagant graves. It just means that on your fitness path, you’re shuffling instead of running at full steam.
Fitness is a marathon, not a sprint (to use an apropos fitness metaphor). It’s a long term game that gets more rewarding the more you invest. Don’t let one day define your fitness, if for no other reason than this: it cannot.
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