What is Beauty?

Think about it… What is shiny hair? What is glowing skin? What is that sparkle in your eye? All of those things are signs of good health.

True beauty is the healthy light inside of us radiating out.

How can we truly be beautiful if we don’t take care of our health?

According to my favorite teacher, Mary O’Malley, “health is an inside out job”.

Although Mary is referring to mental health, as that is what she specializes in, I believe this “inside out job” applies to our physical health as well.

“Beauty is an inside out job” could also be just as true of a statement, as beauty starts not just with our personalities, but with our health.

Yes, anyone can easily be a beautiful teenager and young adult, but true lasting beauty over time takes effort and investment in one’s self.

Nothing catches my eye like a very well preserved older adult. As a physician I evaluate tons of people, and thus have grown to really have a strong appreciation and understanding for what it means to be a truly healthy athletic, active, positive senior citizen.

When people aren’t healthy they simply just don’t look as good as they could. We all know this. I have seen many once beautiful friends from High School lose touch with their health, and also simultaneously lose touch with their external beauty.

Yes, we all wish we could eat a stack of pancakes for breakfast, McInflammation for lunch, and a large pepperoni pizza for dinner still, but the diet that we once enjoyed as teens is not going to serve us well as adults. Being the most beautiful and healthy version of yourself possible requires discipline. Good health requires discipline. You don’t have to make the changes all at once, and you certainly don’t have to follow every health tip I dispense here, you just need to do your best.

To stay motivated with your health, start thinking now about what your health and appearance will be like ten and twenty years from now. If you hope to maintain and preserve what you currently have going on then you will need to tighten up your health care routine. If you are hoping to reverse a chronic condition or desiring to be even more fabulous then you already are, then you will need to become that much more disciplined.

Discipline for most people does not come easy. Instead of thinking about discipline as all or nothing, try a Buddhist approach to healthy living…try the “middle path”. The middle path is one that is not attached to eating or not eating. The middle path allows us to eat ONE donut from time to time, not the whole box. The middle path does not “Blow It” and start chain smoking again after one cigarette. The middle path is the key to moderation.

If you are concerned about your appearance, then you should absolutely be concerned about your health. Before you further invest in your appearance EXTERNALLY, take the time to invest in your health INTERNALLY with pure clean water, organic whole foods, green tea, flax seeds, and all my other favorite things to help you “unleash your inner fabulosity”.