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Source http://www.niashanks.com/break-free-ugly-side-health-fitness/

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The health and fitness industry has done a fantastic job of making women dislike their bodies, and themselves.

Browse the health section at your local bookstore, scroll through social media feeds of fitness professionals, glance at fitness magazines in the checkout aisle of the grocery store. It’s abundantly clear what modern health and fitness is about: losing fat, getting into a smaller clothing size, fixing flaws, and building “perfect” body parts. Physical endowments like a defined midsection and sculpted butt are highlighted, while tips to reduce cellulite and the newest fat-scorching workout are plastered on magazine covers and littered across social media.

You can finally love your body and be happy once you attain these goals, or so we’re led to believe. Happiness, it seems, is just a couple of smaller pant sizes or one perfectly sculpted body part away.

Look around much of the health and fitness world, and the underlying themes …

Source https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/how-kenney-the-tabletop-gamer-lost-120-pounds-and-found-his-voice-literally/

“There’s no way that’s the same person, right?”

Admittedly, that’s what I first thought when I saw Kenney’s before and after photos. There was just NO way that this Tony Stark looking dude on the right was the same person as the man in the other photo, right?

And then I saw his other photos. And then I heard his story.

And then I teared up.

Shut up I’m not crying, you’re crying.

Today, we’re going to be talking about Ironma—-Kenney Frazier, an IT systems administrator from Alabama, a gamer, and an opera singer who has had one of the most dramatic transformations I’ve ever seen. It’s no exaggeration to say that Kenney clearly saved his own life. Not just in terms of life expectancy, but also quality of his life.

Kenney is a proud member of the Nerd Fitness Academy who made some key changes in his life that helped him succeed. We’re going to dig deep into those major and minor changes Kenney made and how you can be like him!

After years of struggle, starting and stopping, a switch flipped and he has lost over 120 pounds in the past 15 months.

Here’s his origin story.

Source http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tinybuddha/~3/2rK1AlI-AG4/

“What if pain—like love—is just a place brave people visit?” ~Glennon Doyle

It’s one of life’s greatest paradoxes: When life is easy, everything seems easy. When life is hard, everything seems hard.

This one keeps coming back to me and I keep trying to figure it out. Why do we end up in these spirals of “all good” or “all bad”? How can we get out of the “all bad” faster next time we get trapped? How can we help ourselves get out of there?

I’ve had periods in my life when all seemed lost. When I haven’t been able to fathom ever getting out of bed with ease again. When I’ve thought my current situation would go on forever or I’ve been convinced that suffering was my destiny.

My struggles have often been linked to physical illness. With six different autoimmune diagnoses, I truly felt my life was over. Before even turning thirty years old my life prognosis was far from optimistic.

I call this period, and others like it, the black hole. I managed to get out of there at that time via some major lifestyle changes, involving my body, mind, and spirit.

But I’ve also realized that, most of the time, it’s the internal, silent struggle that challenges us the most. And, sure, I’ve visited there again in the recent five years, a…

Source http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tinybuddha/~3/qJ_6Kof026I/

“Never put the key to your happiness in someone else’s pocket.” ~Unknown

It was Saturday night. I sat, at my breakfast bar in my apartment, alone and in semi-darkness. Only one small lamp was turned on in the corner.

I was fuming, confused, and most of all, sad. I sprang off the breakfast barstool and began to pace. There were so many emotions circling around in me I had to keep moving in an effort to release them.

I spun around and looked at the clock above my kitchen—it was almost 7pm! He had said he was going to be there by 6pm.

Why was he not there? Did he not know I was depending on him? Didn’t he know I had planned my schedule to be there in time to hang out?

I didn’t have any other plans and felt stuck waiting in limbo. Where was he? I felt the emotions rising toward my throat as they bubbled up and threatened to explode.

I picked up my phone and called my boyfriend, trembling with frustration as the phone rang. He picked up on the third ring.

I had been waiting to hang out with him after work all day. I had imagined us meeting on time at 6pm and having a great evening together.

In my head, I had imagined us going out for a bite to eat and then maybe catching a new movie at the theatre or going t…