Well, I've been working out for something like 9 years on and off, with Fitness Blenders and other channels. I built my own experience, made mistakes went down, poped back up just to go down again, recorded some success, known many failures and, over the years, started (just started, I'm a bit slow) to understand some things that might come handy for some of you. 9 leaves of wisdom that can apply well beyond workouts, and that I have to remember myself regularly. so here's what I wanted to share with you. (Don't expect something crazy that will blow your mind either, just common stuff that we all should think about).
Today's song : Stress by Jim's Big Ego https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGQmmDEDYiI
1/ Everyone is a beginner.
Remember that, even if you're completely new with exercising, or just doing a new kind of workout for the first time, learning is a healthy process and you should never feel ashamed because of you're starting point. You are starting, that's all that matter. Bruce Lee had to learn kung fu, to learn how to throw a punch before smashing everyone on camera, Michael Jordan had to learn the basics of basket-ball before becoming a legend. Everyone is/was a beginner at some point. So don't feel ridiculous because you messed up, don't feel embarassed if you don't know something. Feed on others experiences, build yours Educate yourself, reach for advice, knowledge, be open minded and indulgent with you and with others that can also be beginners. Be genuinely kind with someone trying to make a change in its life and experiencing its own doubts and question. And if you're a veteran of fitness, learn something new, don't stay too comfortable in your routine. Check things up, be a beginner once again. Hit or miss, you'll be a better version of yourself after that. Approach any new workout, new program like you're all new to ewercise, like you have everything to learn. Be humble
2/ You are bound to fail.
Unless you are naturally gifted and the son/daughter of a Greek God, you will fail, multiple times. so just don't beat yourself for your mistakes. Everyone who is telling you that it's all success, in fitness, business or whatever, is a liar. Like everybody began, everybody failed at some point. And that's part of the process, and absolutely ok. Just think of a child learning to walk. The child will try and systematically fall... until he will walk on his 2 feets. Working out is the same thing. You will feel and be uncoordinated, you will come across workouts that will kick your ass and leave you lying on the floor panting in a sweatbath... while the workout is still going on, you will sabotage 2 months of diet by overeating one week end,... Embrace it, learn from your mistakes analyze them, understand them, correct them. Build a solid base on your own motivation, your own will, your own desire to better yourself. Hey either Jordan failed : he quit basket ball, tried baseball, was terrible at it, get motivated, came back to basket, won 3 more titles. Don't let failure stop you, build on it, let it help you to be a better « athlet » and a better person..
3/ Own your success.
As little as they are, scale victories, non scale victories, don't matter. Be proud of every single one of your accomplishments, even just showing up. This is particularly important at the beginning. Lots of beginners make the mistake of setting too big goals that are hard to reach and don't see the smaller goals they achieve, leading to frustration and lack of motivation. Once again, be indulgent, be patient, while taking notes of your little improvments. Feed on the small victories while working on bigger ones. Don't let anyone steal or tarnish your success (including yourself by diminishing your role in it). Your fails are yours, so are your success. Life is hard enough so give yourself a pat on the back when doing something good/well.
4/ Cheaters don't win in the long term.
Be true to you. Being true to others, that's a morale question that I leave to you. The most important is that you be true to yourself. Being in denial, while it's popular in our modern days, does nothing good for you. Not only does cheating will compromise your long term success while destroying the trust and reputation around you but it's also the best way to hurt yourself in the process. While thinking about posting this topic, I was referring to this part as "form", because it's the most common cheat in fitness (not even talking of the well deserved bad reputation of crossfit thanks to dumb athletes and influencers), but on second thought, I realized it was broader than that, especially regarding about diet. My point is, like I already said, you are bound to fail. But If you find yourself consistantly failing, in order to understand why, you need to stop being in denial and observe what you are truely doing. Let's say your lower back always hurt when you do deadlift. You have to know that your form is perfect and be sure of it by going through your check list while performing the move (starting the move from the hips, back flat, hands close to the chins, not going to low, pressing in the heels, squeezing the glutes and hamstrings to get back up). When you know your form is perfect then you can think of another reason why you feel pain in your lower back. Same apply with diet (although I won't talk about diet because I'm still learning and have a lot of work to do in that aspect), studies, work, romantic life, etc... There are always 2 kinds of reasons to a failure : external ones (which depend on equipment, finances, others people,etc..) and internal ones (depend on you). Be humble.
5/ Protect yourself, at any time, from any one.
Even with trustworthy sources, even with Fitness Blender. Back to 1/ : educate yourself, be skeptical and if a trainer seems to be consistantly wrong, that's a red flag and you should run away.Protect yourself during workouts by practising good form relentlessly. Protect yourself with good and adapted warm ups and cooldowns (which both should target the muscle worked during the main workout). Protect your joints, especially your knees during hiit, and your elbows during upper strength training. Be careful and take good care of your body (coming from a guy which organs are falling apart at 37 :D). You and your body are engaged in the longest relationship of your life. Appreciate it for its strength, love it for its flaws, protect it because your all life depends on it. If you fail it, you will pay the price. We already are fragile, a lot of things can hurt you, a lot of things can kill you. Don't add up on that with a careless lifestyle. If you had a careless lifestyle but want to make a change, or already start to change, good ! Have you read 1/ ?
Oh and one more thing : protect your hands. If you are old, it's important. If you're young, it's also important because, hopefully, you'll get old. Stretch your hands/ your fingers everytime you can, while doing bird dogs, reach,etc... You'll thank me later.
6/ Hope isn't a strategy.
Like every big project in life, if you're just going for it without thnking about what you want to achieve, and how you can succeed, and just hope things turn out ok, you will lose a lot of time, energy and motivation in the process for little to no success. In other words, hope isn't an efficient strategy. You will need to identify your strengths and weaknesses as well as your goals and the time it will take to get there and how much commitment to your strategy you can make. Of course, if you're a beginner (in which case, hi, have you read points 1/ to 3/ ?), your gameplan will be more simple than for someone like me who is used to work out and make its own routines. Of course if you can work out only 2/3 times a week for 30 minutes max, it will be different than someone who can workout 6 times a week for an hour (so will be your goals).
The first step you want to take is to identify your goals. It's way easier for experimented people than for beginner. But if you're beginning (or if you never thought about making a gameplan until today), my best advice is to start small (cf 3/). think of what you want to be able to achieve 6 months to one year from your starting point. Select one thing and make it your long term goal.Now think of a short term goal (one month) and a mid term goal (3 months). If you're a beginner I strongly suggest that these 2 intermed goals be related to your long term one, being steps bringing you closer to it. After one month, check where you're at. Failed ? See 2/. Success ? see 3/. Set a new short term goal. Repeat and do the same for the other goals when it's time to check on it. that's for your goals.
Your strategy is working the same. It's what you will do to achieve your goals. Your long term goal is too lift heavier ? Then your strategy will be to do more strength training sessions, balance your diet, gaining muscles mass, etc... there are manygoals and many more strategies. I didnt' mention tactics (basically the day-to-day stuff) because, well, you're reading this on fitness blender, I suppose you're following the vids, so your tactics are taken care off.
Whatever you do, remember : adaptability is key, hope not a strategy.
7/ My strength is gone, thoughts are corrupting my mind.
Motivation is certanly the trickiest part of fitness. You can have the experience, being educated, having the best gameplan of your life, lose your motivation and everything turns into chaos. Well, first it doesn't have to be chaos, second there are some things you can do to prevent the lack of motivation. Kelli loves to say during cooldowns to remeber how to feel at this time of workout to get some motivation next time. Surprised ! Never worked for me. However being able to get your motivation within yourself is the best way to stay the course. If your motivation comes from an external reason, you will have trouble to keep working out. Don't do it to please your wife/husband, to fit in a certain « social standard » or in some clothes or because a friend drag you to a gym to entertain him/her while he/she uninspiringly cheat through the motion. Work out for yourself. It's your moment to connect with your body and mind and think about yourself. Make it a moment when you work on the vehicle of your life. Refer to the goals you have set thanks to the previous point : the more serious and self centered they are (like doing it for your health), the more you can stay motivated. Do what you can for the day. No one can ask you more than that.
If life gets in your way, it's time to once again be indulgent with yourself and accept that sometimes it's ok to skip workouts. Make it a time when you rest, work on your mindset, rebuild some physocal and mental strength. It happened to me lots of time. Well, it happened the past few weeks, for some reasons. The things is, I know why and I also know that it's just a phase, this time will pass and I will be back to work out when I feel better. Whatever happen don't be embarassed, no matter how long you have been skipping. Never panic ! Don't be afraid to have to start again. Life isn't a straight line always going up. Life is a roller coaster : the ups and down will make you scream sometimes, but the ride worths it all. If you're really struggling, reach a friend, a pro, people in these forums, … No one has to be alone.
8/ Years are cruels, weakness nothing we can ever evade.
Like you are bound to fail, you are bound to get injured (do I really need to say that you're also bound to get old ? :)) It will happen, whether it's just some bruises, some pain because you lift to much or because you twist your ankle or something more serious like health problem sidelining you for months. Obviously, you can reduce the risk of an injury occuring (with good form!), but can't absolutely avoid it long term.
I myself avoid all injuries for years before falling on a stupid box jumps (well more a coffe table jumps but that's not the point) last year. I missed the jump and got a bad gash on both my chins. As a diabetic, I had to be extra careful with it. It has been my only injury sustained while working out but it's still a little setback. And health problems sidelined me 7 months this year .Whatever the injury that keep you from working out, don't make it worst by being dumb and force your way back to your routine. Take some time to think about 5/, don't panic about your progress and be patient while you heal. Of course, you can still working out around your injury. A broken ankle shouldn't prevent you from doning some upper body workout, maybe even some chair workouts. Still, take it easy while recovering and when you come back, start slowly to avoid any relapse. Be patient and understand that this injury is the way your body has to say « you treat me badly », « you asked to much from me » or « you've been careless ». Protect yourself.
Also speaking of protecting yourself. If you have symptoms , especially bad ones, and don't know what you could have, please, don't ask on this forum... See a professional (which will probably be the answer you will get from fellas, unless you're just speaking of localized pain only while working out – which is most likely due to bad form or physical weakeness). Again, protect yourself at any time, from any one.
Of course the other part of this point is getting old. Time is just a concept and always the first thing to fade. Sooner or later, hopefully for you later, you will get old and start to slow down, to feel like you need more time to warm up or to cool down, maybe both, need longer rest etc... You can of course stay in shape. You can well be, with a balanced diet and a great gameplan, be more athletic than 30/40 years old at 65, like someone I know, or be 50 and in the greatest shape of your life. Everyone is different but like, at some point, old rap singer have to stop controversial rap singing :), at some point, old person shouldn't do high impact star jumps burpees combo. The age you will have to slow down depends of you lifetime lifestyle, your health condition, genetics,... We are not born equal. Be ready for this transition. If you're in the middle of it, check 4/. Accept it, adapt your gameplan. It's not over yet, you just need to make some modifications and stay humble.
9/ Frail is beauty in the end, this image is a lie !
When I was a teen, 20 years ago, lots of my girl friends were obsessed by « la taille 0 » being as skinny as you can be. In the past few years, skinny became obsolete, now we all have to be fit, that's the new trends (to be honest, things go so fast and I'm so disconnected from all of this and my fellow humans that maybe fit isn't the Thing anymore, maybe there's the new Thing that's even better – for some years). You all know what I'm meaning. Body image, society's diktat of what we should all look like. It's always been a thing, will always be. At first this ninth point wasn't there. There was only 8 leaves of wisdom. A while ago I saw a post of someone dealing with this issue, can't remember the name, too lazy to search it through all these pages, so I'm including a short part. Not short because it's not a big issue, it is, and I find it worst as the years go by. Maybe I'm just more aware of it. Short because I already said everything I had to say in the other points.
Just know body image as conceived by our society is all a lie, especially on internet. So don't be depressed because you don't have big muscles, because you're not slim enough, because you don't have a thigh gap or I don't know what. Protect yourself, educate yourself, be indulgent with yourself and kind with others, reach for help if you find yourself dealing with this issue as eating disorders are rarely just about self image.
Remember we all have our flaws, so you're just fine as you are. Thrive on being the most skillful version of yourself. Appreciate your body for its strength, love it for its flaws, protect it because your all life depends on it. It comes from a 37 years old diabetic man with kidney failure and a retinopathy that leaves him very low sighted. So if I can be at peace with my own body, sure you can too. It takes work, mental strength and acceptance of what isn't, won't be or won't be anymore. Life is more than a race to perfection so don't be overobsessing on futile standards that could well change in 5, 10, 20 years.
Well, I think that it has been long enough, so I'll pass it to you, to share your own wisdom or discussing mine whether you're agreeing or not. Will love to read your thoughts and know what your experience taught you.
9 leaves of wisdom swept away by freezing winds
Hi everyone ! Hope you're all doing well.
Well, I've been working out for something like 9 years on and off, with Fitness Blenders and other channels. I built my own experience, made mistakes went down, poped back up just to go down again, recorded some success, known many failures and, over the years, started (just started, I'm a bit slow) to understand some things that might come handy for some of you. 9 leaves of wisdom that can apply well beyond workouts, and that I have to remember myself regularly. so here's what I wanted to share with you. (Don't expect something crazy that will blow your mind either, just common stuff that we all should think about).
Today's song : Stress by Jim's Big Ego https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGQmmDEDYiI
1/ Everyone is a beginner.
Remember that, even if you're completely new with exercising, or just doing a new kind of workout for the first time, learning is a healthy process and you should never feel ashamed because of you're starting point. You are starting, that's all that matter. Bruce Lee had to learn kung fu, to learn how to throw a punch before smashing everyone on camera, Michael Jordan had to learn the basics of basket-ball before becoming a legend. Everyone is/was a beginner at some point. So don't feel ridiculous because you messed up, don't feel embarassed if you don't know something. Feed on others experiences, build yours Educate yourself, reach for advice, knowledge, be open minded and indulgent with you and with others that can also be beginners. Be genuinely kind with someone trying to make a change in its life and experiencing its own doubts and question. And if you're a veteran of fitness, learn something new, don't stay too comfortable in your routine. Check things up, be a beginner once again. Hit or miss, you'll be a better version of yourself after that. Approach any new workout, new program like you're all new to ewercise, like you have everything to learn. Be humble
2/ You are bound to fail.
Unless you are naturally gifted and the son/daughter of a Greek God, you will fail, multiple times. so just don't beat yourself for your mistakes. Everyone who is telling you that it's all success, in fitness, business or whatever, is a liar. Like everybody began, everybody failed at some point. And that's part of the process, and absolutely ok. Just think of a child learning to walk. The child will try and systematically fall... until he will walk on his 2 feets. Working out is the same thing. You will feel and be uncoordinated, you will come across workouts that will kick your ass and leave you lying on the floor panting in a sweatbath... while the workout is still going on, you will sabotage 2 months of diet by overeating one week end,... Embrace it, learn from your mistakes analyze them, understand them, correct them. Build a solid base on your own motivation, your own will, your own desire to better yourself. Hey either Jordan failed : he quit basket ball, tried baseball, was terrible at it, get motivated, came back to basket, won 3 more titles. Don't let failure stop you, build on it, let it help you to be a better « athlet » and a better person..
3/ Own your success.
As little as they are, scale victories, non scale victories, don't matter. Be proud of every single one of your accomplishments, even just showing up. This is particularly important at the beginning. Lots of beginners make the mistake of setting too big goals that are hard to reach and don't see the smaller goals they achieve, leading to frustration and lack of motivation. Once again, be indulgent, be patient, while taking notes of your little improvments. Feed on the small victories while working on bigger ones. Don't let anyone steal or tarnish your success (including yourself by diminishing your role in it). Your fails are yours, so are your success. Life is hard enough so give yourself a pat on the back when doing something good/well.
4/ Cheaters don't win in the long term.
Be true to you. Being true to others, that's a morale question that I leave to you. The most important is that you be true to yourself. Being in denial, while it's popular in our modern days, does nothing good for you. Not only does cheating will compromise your long term success while destroying the trust and reputation around you but it's also the best way to hurt yourself in the process. While thinking about posting this topic, I was referring to this part as "form", because it's the most common cheat in fitness (not even talking of the well deserved bad reputation of crossfit thanks to dumb athletes and influencers), but on second thought, I realized it was broader than that, especially regarding about diet. My point is, like I already said, you are bound to fail. But If you find yourself consistantly failing, in order to understand why, you need to stop being in denial and observe what you are truely doing. Let's say your lower back always hurt when you do deadlift. You have to know that your form is perfect and be sure of it by going through your check list while performing the move (starting the move from the hips, back flat, hands close to the chins, not going to low, pressing in the heels, squeezing the glutes and hamstrings to get back up). When you know your form is perfect then you can think of another reason why you feel pain in your lower back. Same apply with diet (although I won't talk about diet because I'm still learning and have a lot of work to do in that aspect), studies, work, romantic life, etc... There are always 2 kinds of reasons to a failure : external ones (which depend on equipment, finances, others people,etc..) and internal ones (depend on you). Be humble.
5/ Protect yourself, at any time, from any one.
Even with trustworthy sources, even with Fitness Blender. Back to 1/ : educate yourself, be skeptical and if a trainer seems to be consistantly wrong, that's a red flag and you should run away.Protect yourself during workouts by practising good form relentlessly. Protect yourself with good and adapted warm ups and cooldowns (which both should target the muscle worked during the main workout). Protect your joints, especially your knees during hiit, and your elbows during upper strength training. Be careful and take good care of your body (coming from a guy which organs are falling apart at 37 :D). You and your body are engaged in the longest relationship of your life. Appreciate it for its strength, love it for its flaws, protect it because your all life depends on it. If you fail it, you will pay the price. We already are fragile, a lot of things can hurt you, a lot of things can kill you. Don't add up on that with a careless lifestyle. If you had a careless lifestyle but want to make a change, or already start to change, good ! Have you read 1/ ?
Oh and one more thing : protect your hands. If you are old, it's important. If you're young, it's also important because, hopefully, you'll get old. Stretch your hands/ your fingers everytime you can, while doing bird dogs, reach,etc... You'll thank me later.
6/ Hope isn't a strategy.
Like every big project in life, if you're just going for it without thnking about what you want to achieve, and how you can succeed, and just hope things turn out ok, you will lose a lot of time, energy and motivation in the process for little to no success. In other words, hope isn't an efficient strategy. You will need to identify your strengths and weaknesses as well as your goals and the time it will take to get there and how much commitment to your strategy you can make. Of course, if you're a beginner (in which case, hi, have you read points 1/ to 3/ ?), your gameplan will be more simple than for someone like me who is used to work out and make its own routines. Of course if you can work out only 2/3 times a week for 30 minutes max, it will be different than someone who can workout 6 times a week for an hour (so will be your goals).
The first step you want to take is to identify your goals. It's way easier for experimented people than for beginner. But if you're beginning (or if you never thought about making a gameplan until today), my best advice is to start small (cf 3/). think of what you want to be able to achieve 6 months to one year from your starting point. Select one thing and make it your long term goal.Now think of a short term goal (one month) and a mid term goal (3 months). If you're a beginner I strongly suggest that these 2 intermed goals be related to your long term one, being steps bringing you closer to it. After one month, check where you're at. Failed ? See 2/. Success ? see 3/. Set a new short term goal. Repeat and do the same for the other goals when it's time to check on it. that's for your goals.
Your strategy is working the same. It's what you will do to achieve your goals. Your long term goal is too lift heavier ? Then your strategy will be to do more strength training sessions, balance your diet, gaining muscles mass, etc... there are manygoals and many more strategies. I didnt' mention tactics (basically the day-to-day stuff) because, well, you're reading this on fitness blender, I suppose you're following the vids, so your tactics are taken care off.
Whatever you do, remember : adaptability is key, hope not a strategy.
7/ My strength is gone, thoughts are corrupting my mind.
Motivation is certanly the trickiest part of fitness. You can have the experience, being educated, having the best gameplan of your life, lose your motivation and everything turns into chaos. Well, first it doesn't have to be chaos, second there are some things you can do to prevent the lack of motivation. Kelli loves to say during cooldowns to remeber how to feel at this time of workout to get some motivation next time. Surprised ! Never worked for me. However being able to get your motivation within yourself is the best way to stay the course. If your motivation comes from an external reason, you will have trouble to keep working out. Don't do it to please your wife/husband, to fit in a certain « social standard » or in some clothes or because a friend drag you to a gym to entertain him/her while he/she uninspiringly cheat through the motion. Work out for yourself. It's your moment to connect with your body and mind and think about yourself. Make it a moment when you work on the vehicle of your life. Refer to the goals you have set thanks to the previous point : the more serious and self centered they are (like doing it for your health), the more you can stay motivated. Do what you can for the day. No one can ask you more than that.
If life gets in your way, it's time to once again be indulgent with yourself and accept that sometimes it's ok to skip workouts. Make it a time when you rest, work on your mindset, rebuild some physocal and mental strength. It happened to me lots of time. Well, it happened the past few weeks, for some reasons. The things is, I know why and I also know that it's just a phase, this time will pass and I will be back to work out when I feel better. Whatever happen don't be embarassed, no matter how long you have been skipping. Never panic ! Don't be afraid to have to start again. Life isn't a straight line always going up. Life is a roller coaster : the ups and down will make you scream sometimes, but the ride worths it all. If you're really struggling, reach a friend, a pro, people in these forums, … No one has to be alone.
8/ Years are cruels, weakness nothing we can ever evade.
Like you are bound to fail, you are bound to get injured (do I really need to say that you're also bound to get old ? :)) It will happen, whether it's just some bruises, some pain because you lift to much or because you twist your ankle or something more serious like health problem sidelining you for months. Obviously, you can reduce the risk of an injury occuring (with good form!), but can't absolutely avoid it long term.
I myself avoid all injuries for years before falling on a stupid box jumps (well more a coffe table jumps but that's not the point) last year. I missed the jump and got a bad gash on both my chins. As a diabetic, I had to be extra careful with it. It has been my only injury sustained while working out but it's still a little setback. And health problems sidelined me 7 months this year .Whatever the injury that keep you from working out, don't make it worst by being dumb and force your way back to your routine. Take some time to think about 5/, don't panic about your progress and be patient while you heal. Of course, you can still working out around your injury. A broken ankle shouldn't prevent you from doning some upper body workout, maybe even some chair workouts. Still, take it easy while recovering and when you come back, start slowly to avoid any relapse. Be patient and understand that this injury is the way your body has to say « you treat me badly », « you asked to much from me » or « you've been careless ». Protect yourself.
Also speaking of protecting yourself. If you have symptoms , especially bad ones, and don't know what you could have, please, don't ask on this forum... See a professional (which will probably be the answer you will get from fellas, unless you're just speaking of localized pain only while working out – which is most likely due to bad form or physical weakeness). Again, protect yourself at any time, from any one.
Of course the other part of this point is getting old. Time is just a concept and always the first thing to fade. Sooner or later, hopefully for you later, you will get old and start to slow down, to feel like you need more time to warm up or to cool down, maybe both, need longer rest etc... You can of course stay in shape. You can well be, with a balanced diet and a great gameplan, be more athletic than 30/40 years old at 65, like someone I know, or be 50 and in the greatest shape of your life. Everyone is different but like, at some point, old rap singer have to stop controversial rap singing :), at some point, old person shouldn't do high impact star jumps burpees combo. The age you will have to slow down depends of you lifetime lifestyle, your health condition, genetics,... We are not born equal. Be ready for this transition. If you're in the middle of it, check 4/. Accept it, adapt your gameplan. It's not over yet, you just need to make some modifications and stay humble.
9/ Frail is beauty in the end, this image is a lie !
When I was a teen, 20 years ago, lots of my girl friends were obsessed by « la taille 0 » being as skinny as you can be. In the past few years, skinny became obsolete, now we all have to be fit, that's the new trends (to be honest, things go so fast and I'm so disconnected from all of this and my fellow humans that maybe fit isn't the Thing anymore, maybe there's the new Thing that's even better – for some years). You all know what I'm meaning. Body image, society's diktat of what we should all look like. It's always been a thing, will always be. At first this ninth point wasn't there. There was only 8 leaves of wisdom. A while ago I saw a post of someone dealing with this issue, can't remember the name, too lazy to search it through all these pages, so I'm including a short part. Not short because it's not a big issue, it is, and I find it worst as the years go by. Maybe I'm just more aware of it. Short because I already said everything I had to say in the other points.
Just know body image as conceived by our society is all a lie, especially on internet. So don't be depressed because you don't have big muscles, because you're not slim enough, because you don't have a thigh gap or I don't know what. Protect yourself, educate yourself, be indulgent with yourself and kind with others, reach for help if you find yourself dealing with this issue as eating disorders are rarely just about self image.
Remember we all have our flaws, so you're just fine as you are. Thrive on being the most skillful version of yourself. Appreciate your body for its strength, love it for its flaws, protect it because your all life depends on it. It comes from a 37 years old diabetic man with kidney failure and a retinopathy that leaves him very low sighted. So if I can be at peace with my own body, sure you can too. It takes work, mental strength and acceptance of what isn't, won't be or won't be anymore. Life is more than a race to perfection so don't be overobsessing on futile standards that could well change in 5, 10, 20 years.
Well, I think that it has been long enough, so I'll pass it to you, to share your own wisdom or discussing mine whether you're agreeing or not. Will love to read your thoughts and know what your experience taught you.