I want you to take a moment and be honest with yourself, when was the last time you thought of working out as a way to strengthen your body, as an activity to release endorphins, or as a preventative measure so that in your old age you aren’t dealing with chronic health issues and joint pain?

Or do you seeing it as a way to control your weight and shape so that you look “skinny” and have a “desirable” body and therefore healthy by society’s standards?

Do you ever order the salad when going out with your friends, even when you want to order the burger because all of them are ordering salads and you don’t want to look like the “fat” one in the group?

If we were back in the medieval days and having “some meat on your bones” was the ideal body shape would you still be running that extra mile or turning down that second cookie you are craving?

You do not need to be a number one the scale, a certain, ideal body shape, spend hours in the gym, or follow a limiting diet in order to be healthy but that is what society has come to view as the definition of a healthy lifestyle.

The people that follow these guidelines are admired and praised for their bodies, their self-control, and their self-discipline.

So we all try to follow these extreme standards and put on a show for others so that we too can be idolized for our “healthy lifestyles.“

I believe that it is because being a fitness freak has become so admirable in society today that the motivation behind living a healthy life has changed from being something you do for yourself and your body to something you do for others so that you receive their praises for your “hot body” and amazing self-control.

So, we complain about how sore we are from going to the gym, post that sweaty gym mirror selfie, share snap stories of our clean eating meal, and turn down dessert to create an image for ourselves of being part of the admirable health freak club dedicated to our bodies.

The criteria thought to be part of this club are unrealistic and for the most part actually not healthy for you.

I was praised for my dedication to the gym, my refusal to eat anything but small salads for every meal, and my model like body by my peers at school.

They all thought I was living such a healthy life and wished they had the self-control, motivation, and body that I had. Both my peers and my own perspective that I was living this amazing, healthy life though were far from correct. In reality, I was slowly killing myself.

I was sick, but to society, I was healthy because I was doing all the things that the health blogs on my Facebook feed were telling everyone else and myself was healthy.

We should not idolize someone as being healthy because they are able to get their bodies to look a certain way, are able to push themselves into doing insane workouts, or because they are able to follow that super new trendy, restrictive diet plan all the celebrities are doing.

Health shouldn’t even be about others, being admired by them, or looking and acting how society believes healthy looks. Being healthy should be about yourself and meeting your body's nutritional needs.

That doesn’t mean using social media's perception of what your body nutritionally needs or it's definition of what “good” and “bad” foods are. It's so that you can live to be 80 years old and still keep up with the grandkids, and so that you can relieve some stress, fight depression, and release endorphins into your system.

Health should be about creating a life of BALANCE so that YOU can FEEL your very best not about creating a life PERCEPTION so that OTHERS believe you LOOK the very best.