Obesity Linked to Cancer

I'd like to say I'm pretty health savvy. Not all-knowing, but pretty smart. And yet, I didn't know of the apparent links between obesity and cancer.

And MSN news admits that most Americans know more about TV shows than they do about a link between obesity and cancer. With regards to weight, I believe that health should be the utmost goal. Not how cute, sexy, etc. you may look. While, that may be a motivation to get healthy, I don't believe that should be your number one goal. I'm not saying it's not okay to want to make yourself look better, or what you think looks better. But I believe that eating and living healthier are the steps to being healthy and, if applicable, loosing excess weight. I don't know why people think being skinny makes you attractive. I've seen very many skinny ugly people and very many fat attractive people. Attractiveness differs from person to person. I've found a lot of guys I think are attractive other girls think are hideous. And some girls don't even like guys! Attraction isn't as simple as what's on the cover of People. And it's certainly not a good start to a healthy lifestyle. Want to know why I think so? I'll tell you.

Firstly, if you begin a healthy lifestyle critical of yourself, you're being negative about your body. Living healthier is about loving your body, which is precisely why you want to eat healthy: you want to start treating your body better and loving your body. When you start of hating it, you're at war with your own body. And, as they say somewhere, a divided army can't conquer. I don't believe that any amount of weight loss or plastic surgery is going to make up for lack of self-esteem. You must first realize you're going to be critical of yourself always. There's always going to be things about your body you don't entirely like. Think of it as your personality. There are parts of you as a person that aren't so good, and there are parts that are good. You should approach weight loss in a health-focused way. When people begin weight loss with a cosmetic outlook, once they loose their goal weight they say, "Ooh, I can have a whole pint of chocolate chip icecream because now I'm my goal weight". Then it's back to square one. When you make an effort to change your habits of eating and change your excerisize, even when you're down to that goal weight you'll have made it a habit to eat healthier. Once you see what your body is like clear and not bogged down by fats, sugars, artificial this and artificial that, you won't want to return to square one. I'm not saying that after you start living healthy you won't want any more ice cream. You may still pine away for it. But the thing is, now you'll have more dicipline and you'll think, "I could eat that ice cream... but I know it's not good... so I think I'll pass". You'll see it as a sacrifice for the good of yourself rather than suffering, and this is because you love yourself. You don't want to do that to yourself, so you don't. But if you start out with a negative outlook on yourself, you won't care to wreck your body with 3,000 extra calories a day after you've gotten to your goal weight.

So, my point is, if you're going to lose weight, don't do it for cosmetic reasons. Don't do it because you hate yourself, do it because you love yourself.