There is nothing quite like ill health to humble a person. A few days ago, I fell a little ill. Every time I am sick, I am surprised by how foreign the feeling of sickness is… and how powerful it hits. Sickness incapacitates me. I cannot do the most basic things and I feel like my body is betraying me. I tell my body to move and it responds with a lazy “Girl, please!” on a good day and just plain ignores my request on a bad. Unfortunately, I am never able to capture and hold unto this ‘sickness feeling’ when I am well again. You see, I am a practical woman; I like to be prepared but I am never able to mentally prepare for sickness! Once I become well, try as I might, I always forget how it felt to be sick and when I subsequently fall sick, I am surprised afresh by how horrible sickness feels. It’s a Catch 22 of sorts.

This time when I was ill, I thought a lot about sickness and health. My heart bleeds for people for whom sickness, hospitals and medication form a part of daily life. It occurred to me how much I take my health for granted and how little I value my body. I am far more able to see the many faults my body possesses, than recognise how much it has done for me and treat it as it deserves.
Every moment of every day, my body is fighting for survival; destroying microorganisms that I have willingly imbibed (to my body’s consternation I’m sure), creating new cells, disposing of older ones and so much more. All of these activities going on within me simultaneously and unconsciously! It is truly amazing. Throw in the random complication that I am a woman and you can imagine how much work my body has to do daily. And this body never ever sleeps! Indeed the day it rests fully, I will be in trouble.

In the last week, I randomly came across an excerpt of a Kate Winslet interview in which she spoke about body image. According to Kate, while growing up she never EVER heard a woman say she liked or was satisfied with her body (the woman’s body not Kate’s. Lol) . Not mummy, not sister, not aunty. No one. Imagine the potentially damaging effect on a little girl’s psyche. We are setting a dangerous precedent for our children. Women (and men!) need to embrace themselves, all of them. In embracing we must proceed with caution, I believe that everyone has a “true weight”, which is sometimes different from an “ideal weight” and I believe only an individual can tell when she is carrying more weight than her body can handle. Let us be honest with ourselves and embrace the right thing; our true selves, our real size. Help your body out. Be healthy, exercise, eat right…let’s help out bodies in their fight; it is the least we can do for all our bodies do for us!

All I’m trying to say is this, be grateful for good health. Be grateful to your body for being so good to you! Everyone should make a conscious desire to treat their bodies better…it is the only one you have and is the least you can do for it! So stop talking smack about your body! Treat it right, if you’re working out or dieting to get to your true weight, savor every milestone made in the journey and celebrate yourself, it’s not easy.

This post was partly inspired by the illness of a young man who is fighting a battle with sickle cell by engaging, as a guinea pig of sorts, in avant-garde research to find a cure or a sustainable way of effectively handling sickle cell anaemia. Best bit is that he is strong, brave and charitable enough to blog about the journey http://dayhundred.tumblr.com/, giving us some insight into the entire process. It is a very inspirational, charming and cheerful blog. GO BISADE! Praying for you!!!

Love your body, love yourself.