What Does Being Fit Really Mean?

This is a question that comes up quite often, and well, I’m not sure that there ever will be a definitive answer.

Does this mean that you can run a flight of stairs without running out of breath? Being able to survive a bear attack in the wilds of Alaska? Being able to run a five-minute mile with a cheetah chasing you for motivation?

At any rate, my definition of fitness encompasses three crucial segments: mind, body, and yes, even soul.

I may not be religious, but after a series of events… Well, the life that I’ve been blessed with in general, it would simply be foolish for me to refuse to believe that there is something beyond ourselves. Something that makes humans, one of many species on only one of countless planets in an unfathomably large universe.

There simply needs to be something, some element that goes beyond our understanding, and while it might not be the perfect word for it, “soul” is close enough for what I mean here.

With that out of the way, let’s break down what makes a person fit, piece by piece:

Body:

This is the obvious one, and hey! It just so happens to be the one that I like to focus on the most (Maybe because I’m freakin’ JACKED)

At least, sometimes I like to think so!

Seriously though, being fit in body means more than just looking good. How do you feel on a daily basis? Are you struggling to get out of bed, and just managing to scrape by playing a game of jump rope with the kids? How does your blood work look? Does your doctor shake his head judgmentally at you whenever he hands you those papers over?

Basically, being fit of body means being able to perform the physical functions, including even the ones that you can’t see (heart pumping, stomach digesting, etc.) in an optimal, efficient fashion. Anything beyond that is icing on the cake

Just watch the icing, seriously. All those calories really add up.

Or don’t. Hey, I’m working out, so it all must be going to the right places, right?

If only your heart and arteries looked at it the same way.

Mind:

There is much to be said when it comes to what constitutes “fitness of the mind”, which I will undoubtedly explore and explain in future articles, but suffice it to say that the body follows the mind.

If you’re depressed, struggling with anxiety, or even just struggling with a layer of brain fog so thick that it resembles the icing that ruined your diet, being fit of mind means having to deal with none of these.

None of these feelings are normal, none of these are conductive to you becoming the best version of yourself (the goal of my website, one which you hopefully share), and most importantly, they are NOT something that you need to deal with alone, or for the rest of your life.

If anything is hampering your mind in even the slightest degree, you won’t be performing and functioning optimally anytime soon, and that means, by my definition, you are unfit.

Don’t wait. Don’t make the mistake of feeling like you’re “always such a burden”, and DO NOT self-medicate whatever issues of the mind may arise. 9/10 times that will just make things worse and the other time will just result in no lasting improvement, with maybe a short-term boost. Congratulations, I guess?

The take-home point here is that, whoever you are, no matter where you are, you are not alone. In this glorious age of the internet we are more connected than ever before, so you have literally no excuse to not seek the help that you need.

After all, a fully-functioning mind is a terrible thing to waste (or miss out on).

Soul:

Alright y’all, I’ll admit it right now that I’m still kinda new when it comes to even accepting this kind of thing. And ya’ know what? I owe it all to the love of my life, Anna Kabarame.

There was a time, a long time where I just strictly believed in this moment, what we can see, and what we can prove. After all, why should I believe anything else?

Well, in comes Anna to sweep me off my feet and completely change my entire damn worldview. From the way we met, the strange coincidences like how both of us were just about to give up dating altogether, our past experiences…

Everything just lined up so perfectly. There was never a dull moment, never an awkward silence, and our honeymoon period turned out to be the entire relationship, still going strong as ever, if not even stronger!

Anyway, my gushings aside, all of this made me really, truly realize something: before recognizing the possibility that there was something beyond dumb luck, that maybe things were actually meant to happen, I felt what could only be described as a sense of hollowness.

It’s as if there was this big bundle of sticks composing my human form, just waiting to be kindled, but I just needed that little spark, that little nudge in the right direction…

Basically, I needed to believe.

This doesn’t mean that you have to believe in any particular god or organized religion, hell no! (pardon the pun)

What it does mean, however, is that you’re going to need to step outside of your comfort zone and accept that maybe there’s more to life than what we can see and comprehend. After all, we’ve only been on this planet for so long. Are we truly so arrogant as to believe that we know all that there is, that there is nothing beyond, something we simply can’t understand yet?

Opening yourself up to this new perspective is like a shift to an entirely different world, one full of endless possibilities from which to derive the fuel that drives your transformation into the penultimate version of yourself. Much like the beautiful gingerbread house below, it took that last element, the coming together of two souls, to create something truly wonderful.

THAT is spiritual fitness, one that I only now recognize is, perhaps, the most important kind of fitness of all, because when you’re spiritually fit, everything in your life just flows so much easier. Workouts will become less tedious, actual work will seem less like work and more like building your career, and overall, you will finally realize the full potential you have as a miraculous human being.

Above all else, you will |(and should) feel blessed for all the opportunities you have been given, regardless of what your life has consisted of up until now. Through harnessing the power of this realization, your spiritual energy, you can overcome anything and everything.

As such, when one finally masters all three areas of fitness (and it’s always a work in progress!) and ONLY then, can one truly call themselves “fit”. These are far fewer people than those who claim to be, obviously, but it is just as evident when you hear of bodybuilders dying from heroin overdoses that something was lacking from their lives; they were not physically fit.