My entire life, I’ve watched people I love struggle with their quality of life and seen how it affects their ability to fully enjoy life’s simplest and most significant moments. Growing up, I watched my mother struggle with chronic migraines and my elderly babysitter grow less and less capable of walking as arthritis attacked her knees. Shortly after graduating college, my Dad was diagnosed with Leukemia and I’ve witnessed him struggle with countless health concerns, aches and pains since his first round of chemotherapy in 2015. All this is to say I’ve been extremely aware of this truth my entire life: function over figure. Our physique is irrelevant in comparison to our body’s ability to function.
Something I find incredibly frustrating about the health and wellness industry is that it’s super focused on weight and beauty. Having a perfect figure doesn’t guarantee our ability to experience everything we want to in life… being able to function does. So not every fitness and wellness journey is or has to be focused on body composition. In fact, in my 11 years as a certified trainer, the most amazing physical transformations I’ve witnessed were the byproduct of a far deeper reason “why” than something purely superficial.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe it’s important to love what you see when you look in the mirror, but, as I’ve witnessed with both of my parents and experienced for myself as I’ve grown older: how you feel physically can weigh equally, if not even more, on your emotional well-being. I think of it this way too: while we don’t have control over society’s unattainable standards of beauty, we do have the ability to learn strategies for improving our quality of life so we can feel comfortable and capable in our body - regardless of how our reflection compares to those standards.
I never have been and never will be the kind of trainer that will try to capitalize on people’s insecurities. Clients may want to change the way their body looks, and I’m more than happy to guide them toward achieving those goals so long as it’s not at the expense of their health and quality of life. I’ve had to draw the line many times before and I will continue to do so because I’m hyper aware that pursuing/attaining a “perfect” figure isn’t the solution to, [nor guaranteed to prevent], the kind of health conditions that can turn your world upside down.
So my goal is to empower people with information - to guide them as they discover the amount of power they possess in their daily habits. Our daily lifestyle choices have a significant effect on our health and quality of life - especially when we make our choices proactively rather than reactively. [And I’ll also mention that it’s equally important not to get so obsessed with perfection that we sacrifice fully participating in life either.] Just like breathing, our wellness journey is a constant in life. It’s a function of our being that stops only when our life ends.
I preach to my clients that we “dedicate our healthy lifestyle to our lives; not our lives to our healthy lifestyle”. And that really sums my philosophy up, so I’ll leave you to absorb that sentiment :-)
Oh, and if this message resonates with you be sure to check out the B Strong App and my Wellness Coaching services!
B Strong,
Cassie B.
