I know after reading that title, one may ask yourself the question: What the h-e-double hockey sticks does this have to do with getting fit and becoming healthy? In all honesty though, that one statement can cover so many aspects of everyday life, not just healthy living.
Whether it be buying a house, choosing a church to become a part of, or deciding what to buy for groceries, knowledge can only be a good thing. When you are considering buying a house, it wouldn't be wise to buy based upon pretty photos on a realtors website. While pretty is good, finding out your drywall is covered in black mold isn't something you want to find out after-the-fact. When you decide to look into a church for the home of your spiritual needs, you may want to learn a bit about their beliefs. If you yourself believe in Jesus Christ, you probably don't want to join a congregation and pledge your committment if they believe in voodoo. Finally if you are new in town, you may not want to buy all your groceries without shopping around and finding the best product and value. In all of these situations, having more knowledge can only help you. With all that being said, why would this not be the case when losing weight or becoming fit and healthy?
When taking such a GIANT leap in life,(That's exactly what weight loss is!) the idea that people can take fad diets, or simple approaches to getting rid of the excess pounds, is absolutely ubsurd to me. After all, it took years for you to get your body into the shape it is in. Why then, would it not take years, hard work, and knowledge about the best approach to lose the weight? Sure one can go to the doctor and get gastric bypass, or a lap band put in. (BTW don't take my word on this, I'm sure in some certain situations those medical procedures are necessary. I have only known 1 person who underwent gastric bypass to actually need it though. The others I never saw try to really diet or exercise to shed the pounds.) The problem with all of these things are, the real problem isn't being 'treated' or fixed. You might have a miracle cure for now, but its likely that your habits which got you in this place haven't changed, which in turn will lead you back to this place.
Here's the thing with these fad diets, much like most everything we American's buy into, fad diets are what's being advertised. It's the shiny new toy that every kid wants for Christmas, but by next year...you parents out there know, those toys have long since been forgotten, lost, or shoved into a closet. Onto the next! That's what we are all about. I've worked in fast food for the better part of a decade. It never fails, what is being advertised is what sells. We can have one product literally for 3 years, but as soon its advertised if front of the consumers face....that's what the consumer wants. The same goes with those diets. Every year, there is a new diet pill out there, a new diet where if you starve yourself of certain nutrients that you need, the weight disappears. There's always a new exercise that you can do once a day for 2 minutes, and magically your keg that your carrying around your waistline, will turn into a 6-pack. Seriously, people actually believe this crap??????? It's apparently so, because the diet industry is worth around 42 BILLION dollars a year. Yet somehow, there are still 70 MILLION obese people in the U.S. alone! How can this be you may ask? Well, because the majority of diets advertised out there are a farce. They have taken one piece out of a puzzle and claimed it to be the key to success. People feed off this, because what is in front of their face has to be what's true. In this day and age accountability has flown out the window. Why would you ever do any research for yourself, commercials tell the truth...they don't lie right? If you are saying that right now, you should just stop reading this very moment...this blog has nothing for you. Continue on stalking people on facebook, you'll get more out of that. Anywho, I digress. With such resources out there like google, wikipedia, blogs, youtube...you name it, its information is at our fingertips. Technology and information are everywhere, from computers, to game consoles, televisions with internet capabilities, ipods, and cell phones, the excuse of ignorance should no longer be tolerated.
When the drug phen-phen came out, everyone was amazed that you could actually be skinny and all you had to do was pop a pill everyday. Little did they know, that taking the drug would also get them pulmonary hypertension and/or valvular heart disease, and/or death. Had they known this, they certainly wouldn't have taken it right? Now, looking back on that period of history people have learned a few lessons. Firstly, I think for the most part the majority of the public knows that diet pills are a scam and in no way good for you. Even if they haven't learned that, the FDA is far more weary about letting such destructive substances be sold to our ignorant society. A few of you may remember when the Atkins diet became huge a few years ago...(or 10 actually.) This diet swore that if you cut out your carbohydrates would be your answer. There's also Weight-Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, South Beach...The list goes on and on. Some can show great success, while those same ones can show great failure. With all the different diet plans out there, it is easy to become overwhelmed. You could literally get lost in all of them and not remember which diet you are focusing on. You may not understand why one is working for you and then may stop. I have been in the same position. When I first decided I would lose weight, it was hard to know where to even begin. Its hard to even know what to believe and who to trust with this sort of thing. $42,000,000,000 is more money than I can even begin to dream about. Every company out there wants a piece of that pie. So who's genuinely there to help, and who just wants your money.
The point to tonight's little rant: BE KNOWLEDGEABLE. Here's the thing about losing your weight, or even just obtaining your goals: THERE IS NOBODY LIKE YOU! Not one diet out there is perfect for everybody. Everyone had a long winding road to get them where they are today. Everyone's journey has been different. The key to losing weight, gaining muscle, obtaining whatever goal you have is KNOWLEDGE. Knowledge to know what your strengths and weaknesses are. Knowledge to know what you need to work on. Knowledge to know what the heart of the problem is. Knowledge to know what out there is best for you. Knowledge to know who to turn to. Knowledge to know what's best to eat, to buy, to invest your time, sweat, energy, money and life on. Knowledge to know what you want. Knowledge to know what does and will make you happy. Knowledge to know yourself. A certain co-worker of mine, (You know who you are...)likes to say: "Knowledge is Power." When he says it, it is in a very dorky, I watch too much late-night Cartoon Network kind of voice. The point though, is still the same. Knowledge IS power. SO BE POWERFUL.
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