September 10, 2011

Is skinny beautiful?

I have posted a number of entries on this blog about my take on fitness and healthy food; and my ways have really helped me lose weight and keep it off. When I got to the point of comfortable, with still some ways to go, I began wondering if being thin is so important as being healthy.
What? It's not the same thing?
This question demanded an answer in my mind mostly because of the nature of the work I was involved in - jobs that focused on proper nutrition to prevent chronic diseases. This, along with my being introduced to Tara Stiles and stumbling upon Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP inspired me tremendously. I looked at healthy food and exercise in a new way - Tara made me want to be sexy in a calm way and enjoy my yoga practice more and Gwyneth made it look like cooking and understanding healthy food seem so wonderful and enjoyable.
If you haven't yet watched or tried Tara's videos on YouTube, I strongly suggest that you make it your priority to do so. I don't want to say that she changed my life, but it wouldn't be a lie if I said she did - my day seems incomplete without my 15 min of Tara.
I am young and am grateful to be blessed with good health. But I also have a family whose members are all patients of some form of chronic disease such as high blood pressure and diabetes. I really wanted to love healthy food and not look at it as something I have to do and Gwyneth's understanding of it is really helping me change my views. She says on her website: I had read somewhere that in Asia, the concept of going to the doctor when you were already sick was akin to digging a well when you were already thirsty. You don't need to be a guru of Eastern medicine to agree with this view. Read her complete article on what it means to be healthy. How wouldn't you want to believe it when you look at Gwyneth's radiating smile, even sans makeup?
Finally, I read all of Garance Doré's articles on how she changed her lifestyle to feel good about herself. I couldn't agree with her more when she says that the solutions she came up with, and the lifestyle she learnt to adapt is what work for her, and everyone has their own formula.
Click on the following links to access the articles. Even if you don't want to hear someone's rant on how they don't want to be fat in NYC, just read it for the humor. I promise it will not disappoint.

Changing Lifestyle / New York Skinny VS Paris Skinny

Changing Lifestyle / Food Obsessions & Feel Good Books

Changing Lifestyle / Finding Balance

If you really have checked out all my links and have doubts about how genuinely these women believe in their philosophies and following a healthy lifestyle to be happy, I don't know what to tell you. Granace's articles were so honest and inspiring that it made me want to share my own views and sources of inspiration that leads to EVERYONE who knows me to ask "What's your secret?... What do you do now that you didn't just 2 yrs ago?"

Beauty to me is to be balanced, embrace yourself for all the strengths and flaws you may have. This translates to a glow that beams from the inside out.

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