Complacency be Damned

Complacency is really the "death" of lots of things but, in this case I specifically want to talk about it from the health perspective.  Let's look at What I would consider to be some of the most important aspects to health that keep us fit; exercise, challenges, and diet (specifically nutrition).  Each of these key aspects say a lot to what keeps a person healthy.  Let's start from there, because I can preach and preach upon the other benefits of being healthy but this is what I endured health-wise recently, speaking from personal experience.

Let's begin with exercise and the effects as it deals with a person's overall ability to do anything.  Exercise at its most simple form, as defined by Merriam Webster, "bodily exertion for the sake of developing and maintaining physical fitness." bodily exertion?  Holy moly!!! Does that mean we are going to beat ourselves up just to make ourselves healthy?   Well… in a way yeah, that's exactly it! However, It's so much more than that.  I mean if a person is here on earth living, technically  their heart is pounding away to push blood through their body.  Their lungs provide their body with more oxygen than ever really considered as they breathe as those lungs expand and contract.  Cells are dying off and be regenerated as an amazing rate constantly.  There are way more things happening but it's important to not loose site of the key.  The point is that a person's body needs exercise to continue to develop, and that same body knows its innately, without thought from the person's who's body it is! It does this by consitantly pushing, going and going so that it can take care of itself better as we grow.  Therefore, innately we should exercise as deemed by our own body!

Now complacency, as defined  by good old  Merriam "self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies" Say what now!!! Being self-satisfied so the point of being unaware of actual dangers or deficiencies?  Pffffffftttttt.... Holy cow, I couldn't imagine not being aware of dangers while being relaxed!!! I mean, for the most part, I try my best to make sure I fully know what I'm getting into when it comes to anything….. Right?  No…. living is completely that the feeling of just going and not knowing everything.  When we start off our life we are a baby, completely unaware of anything other than the fact that we went from a warm completely snuggled place to a cold non-snuggled place.  Dangers are everywhere but, to avoid being completely unable to handle what shows up we have physical and innate exercise.  Walking, from baby steps onward, is pretty much our first challenging exercise. Moving our body constantly is in fact exercise. Jumping, playing, running around!!! All Exercise!!! What does that mean!  At one point we have to keep it up because we become good at it, and begins the start of the vicious evil complacency.  

Hence from this point we move on to my next aspect, which is challenge.  Challenge provides us with a means by which we test where we are in life and if we defines whether have improved!  Let's throw that out there again, a means by which we can truly see a difference of what we did back then, to what we are doing now and then compare it to see if we did it better! Ok so that’s not Merriam's Definition, it's mine, I mean Merriam Webster isn't writing this, I am.  Here's the deal, if we sit here and look at the idea behind what we want to accomplish in life and compare it to what we don’t accomplish.  My guess is that we want a larger ratio than we started this earth on, right?  Correct.... that ratio provides worth to someone, probably ourselves, and that worth is what we live for.  So if we challenge ourselves to accomplish feats in life, no matter what they are, being  fit and living a healthy lifestyle will provide an optimal chance to accomplish that feat.  It's just logic and critical thinking at that point but, a good reason to keep up exercise and a healthy lifestyle.

Now to fuel everything we do, we must accept the importance of nutrition so that it gives us what we need to exercise and challenge ourselves, cause and effect sort of relationship.  I avoid saying diet because, we all see that word as such a negative word because it's associated with restriction of "tasty" foods.  So to not focus on the word "diet" but what the food gives us, we will focus on nutrition.  I'm going to go out on a limb here to say it like the '80s would advertise it, "it’s the building blocks of the human body."  Now…. So can I eat an infamous Twinkie and consider it a building block! No…. And yes….   I wanted to get the no out before I explain the yes. First, personally I try to avoid as much man made food as possible, and the main reason is that earth grows enough good food that we don’t necessarily need the man-made stuff.  However, at the core of the man-made stuff there is the components that our body can use which are the standard Fat, Carbs and Protein. Each of these in certain quantities and based on physical activities are useful in replenishing to help maintain the human body.  Does that mean go out and workout hard so you can eat Twinkies…. No…. So stop that thinking right now!!! But does that mean just for the sake of life we can eat a Twinkie once in a blue moon and live a healthy life…. Yes.  Then Queue, Complacency.

I say Queue Complacency because I see it time and time again where people start to notice if they ate a Twinkie, they didn’t become unhealthy they could probably do it again sooner and still be ok! (By the way I want to go on the record here that I am not just downing on Twinkies, one could just as easily place something else unhealthy there and it's comes out being the same result.) Back to the point, the point is that complacency sits in and boom the vicious spiral that causes someone to lose their health because even though they are working out, and working  out hard mind you, they aren't getting anywhere health wise because they are just eating garbage, metaphorically that is and not literally.  They aren't improving only staying the same, no matter how much effort they put into it. So what did I just talk about because it was tuned out with all the words? Don’t eat crap and expect challenges be successful!  End…. Of….. Story…..

Bloody knuckles from my own complacency!

Lastly, I wanted to share my story about being complacent because it does even effect me, and really that’s what drove me to write this.  I have not done Martial arts for a few years now, and by few I mean probably about 7.  I worked out at the gym the other day because, I really needed to and it had been a few weeks since I had.  First, I noticed that  I lost weights when lifting (frustrating),  I lost speed while running (uber frustrating), and my knuckles bled because I had not done a punching back in a while (anger causing).  I was Complacent where I was at but, I did not challenge myself further everyday like I needed to.  So from frustration comes determination,  and now I'm back on the challenging/exercising train. I saw what happened when I missed and I don’t know why I lost sight of what I am trying to accomplish but, I did.  So, I chose from here to change, not dwell on the problem but, move forward and do what I need to do to be better than I was yesterday.  That I pose to you as well, reader, be better than you were yesterday just because…. I urge you to accomplish more than you didn't before your life is complete. Those accomplishments will always be worth it and so will the stories that you can pass the next generation, whether it's your children or someone else's.  

And lastly Complacency be damned!!!