With the advent of the selfie, and social media, everyone is embracing themselves and snapping away with their camera attempting to achieve that perfect look to display to everyone. It has possibly even ‘forced’ people to become fitter or at least want to become fitter and healthier, to ultimately look better which is a great thing.

But then there are some people who talk about and preach, especially through their statuses over social media, that you should be comfortable in your own body and embrace your ‘God-given’ body no matter your weight. With messages like ‘Embrace your curves’ or ‘I’m a large woman and I’m proud of it.’ While this may be somewhat sound advice, the end message is quite vague since it only really focuses on your bodily image.

It is all well and good to be comfortable and confident in your body but there’s so much more to it.

Forget about body image and what anyone else thinks and rather focus on your health. Being overweight, whether you embrace it and have confidence or not, can lead to many adverse health effects.

You put yourself at a higher risk for things like heart failure, heart attacks, diabetes, high blood pressure and many more. You are shortening your own life every day you don’t do anything about it. It’s not just about looking good or being comfortable in your body, it’s about your health and ensuring you keep your body running optimally. It is an aspect of your life which only YOU can do something about. Noone can do it for you as it all starts with you.

Some people tend to argue that it’s their life and their body and they will do whatever they want to do. But remember, especially if you have a family for instance, you have people depending on you, looking up to you, and by not taking care of yourself you are indirectly not taking care of them.

“If you stop growing you die.”

Life is all about growth, learning and bettering yourself in every aspect that you can. You should never be comfortable or satisfied with where you are since you can always be better and do better. Focus on how to improve yourself every single day in every aspect that you can, not only health wise.

“Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.” ~ Vince Lombardi