Tragically Fit? What's that?

"Tragically Fit? What's that? What's a 'Lorg'?"

That's the question I get asked about 2-3 times a day when I wear one of my 'Lurg shirts'. I typically turn my back to the inquisitor as I tactfully correct their pronunciation of Captain Caveman's name, point my thumb at the URL on the shirt and tell them to check it out online. Lurg's story explains it better than I can. However, I've been thinking about it more lately and wondering if there is a more concise and compelling definition I can provide to inquiring minds. Well, maybe not concise...

Tragically Fit is the idea that one can be fit in mind and body through natural means; not based on the gimmicks, pills and contrived training methods we are force fed by the diet and fitness industries over the last several decades. These are industries whose purpose is ultimately to maximize profits and sell a service or product to the broadest market possible. They are not a honest movement towards good health, they're a commercial force.

In the process of becoming experts on fitness and exercise, we got collectively stupid. I blame marketing. You can't package common sense. It's hard to sell hard work. It's even harder to vaguely tell people to move and have fun, without telling them how to move or what fun to have. They need to sell it, it needs to be simple and it only needs to sound legit.

As technology advances to make business allegedly more efficient, we seem to lose more time. So now, not only do we sit on our asses most of the day, we're sitting there longer. So much for efficiency. So now we apply this backwards logic to diet and exercise. It has become a chore, not a lifestyle.

To me, Tragically Fit is as much about being accountable and empowered as it is about being physically fit. It's about creating balance in your body and in your life. It's not about being an ultra-marathoner or MMA fighter, although it can be. It's a way to break from the chains of your Lay-Z-Boy and discover that there is actually a world out there to enjoy, batteries not included, or needed. It is not constrained by the walls of a gym or a line of products. Tragically Fit does not fit in a package and it's not a routine.

It's about redefining your self image. You aren't likely to resemble a magazine cover model or professional athlete, nor do you need to feel like you should. What good is a 'six-pack' if you pull a hammy moving the couch while in search of the remote? (or better yet, your running shoe) Will you be measured by someone else's ideal or will you measure yourself by what you are capable of?

So as for my attempt at a concise definition goes...

Physical fitness and good nutrition are not the means to an end, they are the means to opportunities that are endless. To be Tragically Fit, is to make functional movement and natural health a way of life, not just something else to cram into it.