Aesthetic Health Is Not Real Health | Tarannum Sehdeva | TEDxCVS

The speaker challenges the modern perception of health, comparing it to a treadmill: constant movement and exhaustion, but without a clear destination or genuine progress. She argues that much of what is considered "health" today is a performance, driven by anxiety, depression, and a bad kind of exhaustion. As a final-year medical student and content creator, she shares her personal experience of meticulously tracking fitness metrics—steps, protein, workouts—while neglecting her body's actual needs. Wellness culture, she contends, has become a performance, where individuals meticulously track macros, intensity, calories, and steps. This obsession with external metrics leads people to stop listening to their bodies, instead prioritizing the appearance of health. Medical training, she notes, teaches that "health isn't silent; health makes noise," meaning our bodies constantly fluctuate and communicate their needs. The speaker highlights how "hustle culture" glorifies constant effort, even when experiencing emotional distress. Influencers often promote working out as a solution for sadness or breakups, conditioning people to push through exhaustion rather than rest. She admits to doing this herself, pushing through fatigue to work out and then posting gym selfies, perpetuating the idea that one must always "go work out," regardless of how they feel. This creates a cycle where people ignore their body's need for rest, believing it to be the opposite of progress, when in fact, rest can be progress. Body image issues, exacerbated by social media and the desire to "fit in," further drive this performance-based approach to health. The speaker recounts her own motivation to join the gym to improve her appearance and fit better into clothes, but also acknowledges that her initial push was due to genuine fatigue and poor blood work. However, as she saw physical changes and received compliments, her confidence soared, leading her to prioritize external validation over internal well-being. She realized she had stopped listening to her body, instead internalizing others' definitions of health. She poses a critical question: "When was the last time you looked into a mirror, you saw your own body, and your first thought wasn't about changing it?" The widespread difficulty in answering this question, she explains, stems from conditioning, not awareness. Studies show a significant number of adults, especially young women, experience anxiety and distress due to body image issues. A survey of regular gym-goers revealed that most exercise to change their appearance, not to feel healthy. This highlights a fundamental flaw in the fitness culture: if people don't know what they're truly improving, how can they rely on this system? The speaker emphasizes that true health is not silent; it’s loud and noisy, operating at a cellular level. Ignoring this internal noise means listening to everyone else but your own body. She has observed in her medical practice that aesthetically fit individuals often have poor blood work, high stress levels, hormonal imbalances, and poor recovery, while others who don't fit the aesthetic are metabolically, physically, and mentally healthy. This suggests a mismeasurement of what constitutes health. Doctors often question whether people are pursuing health to an extreme or calling it balance. Bodies are built on balance, fluctuation, and recovery, and rest is not the enemy. The speaker concludes that modern health, as often portrayed, is a "hoax." Listening to one's body should be the priority. Aesthetic wellness teaches us how to *look* healthy, not how to *feel* healthy. She recounts a personal instance where, despite rigorous workouts and adherence to diet for a year, her blood work revealed severe vitamin D deficiency. She was consuming external information without creating internal awareness. The speaker reiterates the treadmill analogy: we are constantly running, exhausted, and trying to reach a destination, but often forget we're on a treadmill. The best thing is sometimes to step off, not run harder. Being healthy is not about performing it for others or showcasing it on social media; it’s about how you feel. She leaves the audience with a final question: "Am I trying to be healthy because I feel like it or because I'm showcasing a performance?"