Andrew:
Humans by nature seek the path of least resistance. We want results, and we want them as fast as possible. If a little of something is good, a lot must be better. It is by nature to look for the shortcuts to health, fitness, and happiness. This nature directs our attention to that book on the shelf on the book store promising weight loss, or perhaps those six pack abs which have become the quintessential beacon of fitness. We see the ads on tv, with hip hop music, groups of people jumping around, and a guy with his shirt off trying to explain why "muscle confusion" is the ultimate stimulus for body re-composition while we stare at his glistening pecs and abs.
It's hard not to buy into the marketing, they cite studies, show "real user results" and often generate huge social circles around their products. Some interesting facts I just learned that humans subconsciously mimic others. The classic example is yawning. Once one person yawns in a meeting, look around, you'll notice others too. Our human nature to belong sometimes puts our good intentions aside and we buy into the gimmicks, marketing, and hype.
In this post I would like to share some commentary on the current fitness and nutrition trends, give some advice on what I believe will help you stay on track for living a healthy lifestyle. Working with people as a trainer, it is astonishing to see how many people really believe in these trends. I have clients "juicing," co-workers "cleansing" and people coming into the gym asking about cross-fit.
Have you ever completely gotten encapsulated into one of these programs? Whether it is doing a restrictive diet, a specific, intense exercise program, or training for an event in order to get you exercising? I'll admit I have. How many of you have made these programs an integrated part of your life? The problem with following a program is that it leaves you no room to be an individual. It takes the human element out of the equation, they're impracticality to our different lives, bodies, and schedules makes them hard to adhere to.
Not only are they hard to adhere to but often with the case of diets, they can make life much harder. Buy a juicer, pay 25.00 a pound for the latest and greatest antioxidant go-go berry from the amazon that will whiten your teeth and make your urine smell of lavender. Eat as the caveman did, no wait....only raw foods. With so many rules, and restrictions, it is impossible to sustain this.
This applies to exercise programs as well. How many thousands of people who hate running sign themselves up for and buy a marathon training program? People waking up at 5am for a bootcamp, going to the crossfit gym and before ever learning the basic techniques of olympic lifts, sign the waiver and begin cleaning until exhaustion I am sure you can imagine how hard it is to make something you dread doing everyday stick into a routine. As I have always said, exercise needs to be something you enjoy personally, and I am sorry 20min a day, three times a week isn't going to get you there as the marketing would like you to believe. Everyone is different, and will enjoy different activities. I am not going to take my 70 year old female client and put her under a squat rack, just as I am not going to put my 16 year old soccer player in a body sculpt class.
The key to adherence in exercise is enjoying what you're doing, doing it efficiently, and seeing results. You have to know that it takes consistency and hard work, but at the same time you can't let it fester as a pesky daily task. If you find an activity you love to do, you'll look forward to, enjoy the hard work and exertion, and stick with it much more than if it feels like a chore. This is very hard to do when you're looking solely into the programs where all the guess work is taken out for you. I suggest you do some research, sit down with an expert, or experiment with different things and draw out a plan for how you can integrate fitness into your lifestyle. What it all boils down to is the simple law all living things abide to, Wolf's law: Living organisms adapt to the stressors of they're environment. Simply stated, if you want to run further, practice running, gain muscle perhaps? Start challenging yourself with heavy weights in the weight room. Your body will seek adaptations to the repeated stress.
Diet adherence can be much more complicated. With all the information we are bombarded with daily it certainly muddies the water on what is a healthful diet. No gluten, starch is bad, high cholesterol, and low fat. It is confusing on what exactly to believe. My simple advice, and I can easily write an entire post on this but I'll save that for later. Eat a diet rich in plants. Keep the processed foods to a minimum. Don't worry or stress about the latest claims in health, don't buy into the fads. Yes, chia seeds may have been the reason why the Myan's were so smart but I am not going to pay 20.00 per pound for a bunch of seeds I can get the same nutrition from a handful of nuts. Stop believing everything you hear. A current fad is extolling fruit, trust me, our nation did not build it's foundation of obesity on apples and banana's. Eat them along with veggies, and good meats, potatoes, rice, beans, and grains. A balanced low processed diet is the easiest way to maintain health for the long run.
Those are my thoughts on the fitness and health trends and fads. Always be aware, someone is trying to make a buck. Although I don't have room to talk, I myself am making a living off personal training, I can only help but shake my head when I see someone come into the club with a kale, ginger, and chia smoothie and know that somewhere along the line they were duped into the false health halo of marketing. It will only be a matter of time before the next trend rolls around and they buy into it.
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