Nowadays you can learn a lot about many subjects by watching YouTube videos, and even following Instagram pages. I personally follow this one particular girl who claims to be fit, have mental health issues, and has a cult like following with 183,000 followers. She gets sent free stuff from companies to review their products. She talks about nutrition. Most of what she says is misinformed. She’s doing what she knows, and thinks she’s helping. Maybe she is to some. I honestly don’t believe there’s anything devious about her. But the status and attention we’re now giving to “fit looking” people is concerning.
I can only imaging how many more examples of this malpractice is going on, with people following other people to get “their workout.”
Truth is there isn’t a magic workout. A neat name like HIIT doesn’t “melt fat.” You melt fat with nutrition, strength and mobility, sleep, reducing stress, and yes some relative intensity probably helps.
Anyway there are more than a few pictures of herself eating chick-fil-a and diet coke, and Starbucks with the sugar free syrup blah blah blah. I’m all for having a tasty meal, don’t get me wrong. But anyone with a quarter of a million people watching their every move should probably at least attempt to understand that fake food with the absence of calories has little to do with nutrition. I guess if we’re saying “everything in moderation” or “you gotta live a little” that’s fine. But man oh man, it’s misinformation like this that got me stuck in a terrible place, and I wouldn’t want the same for anyone else.
She also talks about being in a caloric deficit to lose weight. Anyone with this much influence should be required to know that while paying attention to the amounts we eat is important that 1. it isn’t the most important factor in health 2. the scale or how much you weigh probably isn’t the best measure of “health” or “fitness.” 3. weight loss itself is not congruent with health. The obvious example is if we lose 5lbs of fat but gain 10lbs of muscle we’ve gained weight, but it’d be difficult to argue that we haven’t become healthier.
With that said, as a culture we eat too much. We say “I’m starving” to mean “I’m hungry.” There’s actually a term called comfort food. When you’re really hungry, everything is a comfort food. When what you eat is clean, you don’t need as much. Enough to sustain energy but minimize body fat is the goal.
And what exactly wrong with being hungry? We commend the young entrepreneur when they say I’ve made it in life because I was hungry. So this suggests a positive light for the word hungry. You work hard when your hungry. Hunger is a good state to be in. It’s not just an analogy, it’s real.
When you’re hungry, food tastes amazing. You don’t need all kinds of sauce and flavor. I personally like how I feel when getting to that place a little more, and just eating because it’s time to eat a lot less.
Be wary of who you’re getting your info from. So called experts who seem to know everything, or finding the next new quick fix are out there in droves. Find someone who doesn’t know everything but might be where you want to go. Better yet, learn to self assess. Can you get up from the ground? Can you do a pullup, burpee, pistol, muscle-up? Don’t say you can’t or don’t care to, unless you mean it. If deep down inside you’re saying, “man I wish I could do that,” then man up and start. Own it. Get motivated, then get driven, then get obsessed, then get connected. There are actually steps to follow. Start on step one. What’s holding you back? Weight, strength, mobility, flexibility, practice, technique. In general, work on your weaknesses more than your strengths. They all need to be worked on in concert for you to function optimally anyway. If you find yourself wanting to get on the path, check out some of the YouTube videos on moveplaylearnnow.com.