Why, when you order the salad with chicken and a glass of sparkling water, you’re “weird,” but if you order the wings and a beer you’re “normal?” If you go to the gym everyday you’re “obsessive,” but if you work extra-long hours and make no time to move, you’re “committed?” What about the feeling of “guilt” when a mom takes one hour of her day to exercise instead of spend time with her family?

What I don’t understand is the stigma around “healthy” people, it’s not cool to be healthy. We humans feel pressure to belong, feel included, our biology yearns for a community to accept us. 

I believe we think it should be easy. We think the easy choice must be the right choice, our society thriving on efficiency, doing things faster, taking the quick road. Our brains are wired to value efficiency, we may need to sprint from a tiger, go a day without food, or grow a baby. But we no longer move all day long, calories aren’t scarce, and we don’t sleep and wake with the sun. Easy and efficient no longer serve us. 

The food and health industries are built around convenience, sickness, and marketing. You don’t think large food corporations hire scientists to test the palatability of processed foods, or hire firms to create the most alluring packaging, placed at eye level in every store? 

What is available, easy, in front of us, is what we will do. Lifestyles are formed around desk jobs and long work hours, shelf-stable foods and automation. It is not easy to move so we sit, we feel tired so we choose easy. 

Our lifestyles have taken a 180 degree turn for the worse. 80% of the U.S. population is metabolically un-healthy, carrying dangerous fat packed around organs and in muscle tissue. The majority has now become unhealthy, so this has become the norm. We tend to view “healthy” people as weird, obsessive, disciplined, party busters, even selfish!

It's time to change the narrative back to health, to show the world that the extra effort is worth it! Once you feel good, experience less illness, feel more energetic from moving more and eating well, getting better sleep, you won’t want to go back. But it’s hard to convince others when they’ve only known “okay” and haven’t experienced “optimal.”

I challenge you to silence the voice that wants to comment when you choose the beer, but your friend chooses water, or you’re happy sitting but your spouse wants to walk. It’s personal misgivings and insecurities about our own health that lead us to single out and pressure others to follow suit. Be the leader! You ARE the person that makes the healthy choices, so stop the commentator in your head telling you otherwise.

Make whole foods, movement, and sleep the “majority,” and the occasional drink, chocolate cake, lazy Saturday the “minority,” and see how you feel. Let’s start a revolution of health, pioneering the lifestyle we want for ourselves and our children, and turn the “health nut” back to the norm!