Hello. I’m Ron Green. I’m a fitness professional and I’d like you to put me out of business. My goal is to see that people are healthy. I give them encouragement to find their Heart. I give them tools to help them Focus. I celebrate their Power. My work is done when they no longer need me. Sure, clients come to me to for more than just self-repair, I’m also available for ongoing wellness. I’m going to tell you a secret of my industry: you don’t need me. You don’t need Whole 30, Paleo, Weight Watchers, Intermittent Fasting, Reverse Dieting, Keto, The Egg Diet, the Military Diet, or whatever else is being sold by your favorite Instagram Influencer.
The plans I just listed aren’t lifestyles, they’re hashtags. They are part of the bloat of information we face everyday and we need to go on an information diet. If you really want to fast intermittently, turn off your phone and think back to what you know to be true about fitness.
Let me tell you about Tim. Tim is a client that was at the top of his game physically. He was a competitive cyclist and knew his nutrition intake to the microgram. Then, he got a new job. It required a change in his schedule, therefore he lost his rhythm. About eight months later, he decided he wanted to compete in one of this employer’s corporate challenges. So, he called me to tell me about his goals and ask for my advice. He said he’d heard some folks were seeing great results with (insert name of brand program) and he wanted my opinion. I asked him, “What were you doing before?” He answered that he had a routine and a strict meal plan. I responded, “So, what’s the problem with that?” He said, “Well, nothing, I guess. I just heard about this other thing and, you know…” So, I asked again, “What was the problem with what you did before? You were fit, healthy, happy, had a great routine, and the results were reliable and repeatable. The only thing missing was a brand name. If I call it the Tim Knows What’s He’s Doing Diet will you go back to using it?”
We were taught all we need to really know in 3rd grade Physical Education: Move more, eat a healthy diet. Remember that time your gym teacher pulled out their scale, weighed your lunch and asked if it were hunter or gatherer? NO! Do you know what the hunter/gatherers called their diet? EATING. They didn’t have a name or special packaging for how they lived their lives. The basic fundamentals don’t require that sort of scrutiny.
Think back to my articles on accountability and how we lie to ourselves. We discussed the value of letting the right people influence you. The number one person you can trust in this scenario is YOU! YOU know how to eat, track, plan, and adjust. If you don’t, it’s actually pretty easy to get you there. You can count on facing distractions along the way. The reason you know so many people who are trying the next big thing is because they gave up on trying the last big thing before it became effective. The problem with diet plans isn’t the plan. It’s that people know what works and choose to seek alternate paths anyway. It’s so easy to be influenced by marketing, social media, and the people around you. It’s natural to want to maximize your return on investment. If you can get six weeks’ worth of results in three weeks, why wouldn’t you? But you can’t, because no one ever has. We get distracted by the person in our lives who saw results when they used a brand name diet plan because we cannot truly see the commitment. We don’t witness the tracking, the portioning, and the time in the gym. Because we see the result and the not the commitment, we assume the result is attainable without having a true measure of the commitment.
The distractions have to stop. You have to go on an information diet. If you will limit the access these distractors have to your attention, you’ll find that the same answers have been given to you in new packaging. Remember, your health isn’t an experiment. Wellness is based on science and there haven’t been a lot of changes. The basics remain the same and the science isn’t all that complicated. Eat well, move more. Those four words could ruin an industry.
The counter punch to this ideology is that not everyone is on the same plan because we don’t all share a common goal. Your nutrition intake and exercise plan should be in alignment with your goals. Powerlifters, swimmers, and ballerinas have unique needs and goals; therefore, their systems should reflect those standards. Even in those comparisons, the decisions don’t have to be complicated. Eat according to your desire to remain performance ready. Move according to the same goal. When you boil that mission down, what two elements remain? Movement. Nutrition. Movement and Nutrition, Nutrition and Movement. You know this. I know you know you it and now you know it, too.
If I took all the books, online courses, YouTube Videos, influencer pages, and commercials away and said, “go be healthy for six weeks,” could you do it? The answer is yes and YES. After everything we’ve discussed in these articles, you are ready to make a list and head to the grocery store. You are ready to meal prep. You are ready to decide to take the stairs, go to the park with your kids, ride your bike, or hit the gym. Are you going to miss a few of the finer points? Maybe, but that’s nothing to really worry about, is it?
I don’t really want you to put me out of business. The world is always going to need to experts and professionals. It’s how we remain safe and effective. I would, however, love for a client to show me what they’ve learned – truly learned by taking these basic principles and discovering something new about themselves. If I’ve given you the information and the guidance you need to take the next steps, you can come back to me when you’re ready for the next challenge. In the meantime, keep yourself on a strict informational diet. Avoid too much intake, stay away from bloat, and stick to what you know.