“Fitness”, is a such a familiar word. Often when we hear the word “fitness”, we have the mental image of an athlete with a firmed, tanned body, and a stamina better than normal people.

Does your food make you lazy as a cat?

It is definitely not wrong to have that connotation. However, the meaning of the word is much more than that. The word “fitness” comes from “fit”, which means “in good shape; or “in good health” from the dictionary. When we co-relate fitness to exercise stamina, we overlook some other important meanings of the word.

“Fit”, is actually an all-encompassing word. It should more accurately co-relate to more than exercise stamina, for eg. a healthy person looks better, runs faster, recovers from illnesses quicker, feels happier than an unhealthy person.

Think Body - “physically fit”; Mind - “mentally fit”; and Spirit “spiritually fit”.

Ceteris paribus, a person who looks tired and dull, struggling with frequent colds, and constantly complains about life, is unlikely to perform better at sports than someone who looks youthful and radiant, enjoys superior immunity, and looks forward to life everyday.

To me, the word “fitness” means sports stamina and so much more! I see great looking people with truckloads of energy, they’ve got fresh skin, nice hair, clear eyes, you can feel the sun rays emanating from their smiles, they recover from training and sports injuries faster, they always look youthful… there are enough to fill this page and then some more!

And the good news is? You can be fit too! You have a right to be beautiful, happy, healthy and energetic. Yes, it is your birthright to have great skin, clear eyes, thick hair, boundless energy and joy, in other words ,”fit” !

To the mainstream, “fitness” is also after all, a relative term. When I was eating conventionally, people still regarded me as healthy and “fit”, simply because I was running races and doing gym. On a looser term, you can even say that I was coined “fit” just because I was not grossly obese or battling a terminal disease!

Such are/were (I leave it to you!) the societal standards of fitness. But it is only now when I step into the other side of the field, that I can truly taste the sweetness of “fitness” in body, mind and spirit.

Only now do I truly experience, and recognize, that I was merely “getting by” in the past.

And I would not want to go back for anything in the world, because nothing is more precious than Life!

I am filled with such gratitude and appreciation as I write this page now. Last night, I worked until 4 am for an intensive raw skills coaching this week and was up on my feet from 8 am. Since then, I’d talked, worked and moved non-stop until 6pm. After a 20 lap swim, a short sprint and huge dinner, I worked my way through the mountain of emails.

And finally now, 17 hours later, I’m fully awake and ready for more. After a hard day’s of work, I’m still energetic and full of vigor. In fact, I was just contemplating a night run at the park because of the full moon today!

Now you tell me - if you are me, would you want to live at this new awesome fitness, or just ‘getting by’ like last time?

Although this is not my normal routine (and I do not recommend living like this consistently!), I’m nonetheless grateful that this precious body can support me at this level when I need it to. This body, which I am borrowing for a definite number of years, is so amazingly creative and productive when I treat it correctly!

Join me and thousands worldwide today, to start marveling at the wonder of your own body. Be amazed at what your body can do for you if you respect and treat it kindly. I am still pretty awed by how I can repeatedly break my own running records, and I know there are countless sportsmen who are enjoying this fortune too!

Love, Light and Laughter
Linda Loo

Tags: raw & living foods, raw food diet, low fat recipes, vegan weight loss