7 Big Health and Fitness Lies About Optimal Health and Weight Loss

(NaturalNews) In a perfect world, 98% of people who lose weight would not gain it back. But the reality is that they do. Losing weight and reaching optimum health has become more of a challenge than it needs to be due to certain factors I've researched and outlined in this three part series. This is an excerpt from my book, "The Busy Person's Fitness Solution" which can be found at www.TheBusyPersonsFitnessSolution.com



Big Health and Fitness Lie #1: The Health and Fitness Magazines, Diet Books, Super-Bars, Protein Shakes, Gadgets and other Assorted Gizmos Are Here To Help You



False.



These products are here to confuse you. If you - and the millions of other consumers like you - figure out how easy it is to get into shape, the billions of dollars spent each year on gadgets, systems, trainers, and workout and diet plans becomes a trickle of pennies.



How many times have you wondered if the low carb diet is for you? How about the low fat diet? Do you know which one is better? The heath and fitness marketers have made it so difficult to make any sense of what we should eat and how we should move that we’re completely lost.



It’s not really in the interest of the fitness and diet product marketers - the ones that sell you books, magazines, products, and videos - to give you what you need to get into shape because then they’ll have nothing to sell and nothing to promote.



Imagine if you were in the key and lock business and suddenly crime was eradicated. No one would need locks any more because their fear of burglary would be gone.



Same deal with the health and fitness marketers. If no one is afraid that they’ll gain weight because they know all the right things to do to keep it off, those marketers are no better than the locksmith in the example above - out of a job.



Now let’s put this into perspective. I’m talking about the marketers as a whole.



Does this make all health professionals bad, evil people? Absolutely NOT!



There are thousands of professionals out there fighting against the misinformation we’ve been fed.



But it does make you wonder how many people out there are playing with your needs when they promote their “New,” “Radical,” “Secret” or “Guaranteed” products, doesn’t it?



Big Health and Fitness Lie #2: The Model on the Cover of Vogue is a Perfect Picture of Health.



We cannot believe everything we see.



Models, fitness and beyond, are not the picture of perfect health. Supermodel Carol Alt - when she was in the prime of her modeling career lived on coffee and bagels. Arnold Schwarzenegger? Steroids, note: They were legal then.



What about the others? What about the guys you see on the fitness magazines? Do you really believe that they look like that under their clothes all the time?



They don’t.



It is common knowledge in the training industry what some of these guys do to look like that for their photo shoots.



They bulk up and put on weight and muscle first by eating an exorbitant amount of food everyday—straining their digestive, circulatory, muscular and skeletal systems. Then they practically go on a starvation diet that gives them a minimal amount of nutrients. This is just a more intense version of binge and purge—over do it and then severely under do it.



Worse, in the last few days leading up to the shoot or body building competition, they drink barely any water (you might hold on to it) and stop eating anything with minerals that might cause the body to retain water.



And this is just if they do it naturally without steroids, HGH or any other muscle building, performance enhancing drugs.



Many of the fitness and diet programs you’ve done or read about are variations of this technique.



You throw your body out of its natural balance for limited periods of time to achieve short term results through subtle deprivation or extreme overexertion. Is this what you want to put yourself through, only to briefly resemble a false ideal?



I know I don’t.



You want fantastic health and fitness. The way of the cover model and centerfolds is all about smoke and mirrors. These images we’re bombarded with are NOT real. The people are, but the message they are passing along to you is a lie.



Look at what’s happening in our sports leagues. The players are getting caught using banned substances over and over again. Baseball is a mess, so is sprinting, and so is cycling. What other sports are passing along this lie?



Are our athletes and cover models the people that we should want to look like? Probably not. Some of them are caricatures. They’re larger than life comic book figures. You wouldn’t set a goal to physically look like the Hulk, because he’s a fantasy figure. Just as fantastic are the images we see everyday on our TV’s, magazines, and the internet.



Don’t buy into this and you’ll be happier, healthier, and more successful than you’ll ever imagine!



Big Health and Fitness Lie #3: Scientific Research Shows…



Buy into the back and forth of the “flavor-of-the-month” scientific studies and you’ll crash and burn.



I’ve done it. So have you.



If you really want to rely on science, You have to look at who’s doing the study, who’s funding the study, how many people participated in the study, how controlled the study was, and if they did a follow up study to verify results.



This is a daunting task and if you actually take the time to do so, you’ll find that many of the studies are much more inconclusive than the media reports. There is one scientific fact about exercise and health that you need to know. The fact is this: if you start to take control of your own health and fitness you WILL succeed.



You might think that’s not exactly science, but it really is. I remember reading Newton’s laws in the 7th grade: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Translated to fitness: For every action you take there will be a reaction that will give you feedback and tell you if it works or if it doesn’t.



You can’t listen to all the studies that say working out at a certain time of day is better than another, or doing this type of exercise is the ONLY way to get the results you want. There is no “only” way. There are ineffective ways, there are better ways, and for each individual there may be a best way.



For an “only” to exist, it must be an “absolute,” and if an “absolute” keeps changing, it’s absolutely wrong!



You don’t need doctors and physiologists and trainers telling you what is right and what is wrong, or what has been scientifically proven and what hasn’t.



There’s a 10,000 year history of exercise that we’ve completely ignored over the past 30 or so years that has all the answers you’ll ever need.



The lessons from all these years are based on common sense. Move, move and, yes, move—and do so sensibly. It’s so simple it pains me to tell you.



The 7 Big Health and Fitness Lies About Optimal Health and Weight L...



Big Health and Fitness Lie #4: You Must Work Out 7 Days a Week for 30 Minutes Each Day…



If you’re a robot.



I laugh when people say you should exercise six to seven days a week for at least 30 minutes. Not because it’s bad advice - it’s just not realistic to start.



When I hear this, I get a silly image of cavemen logging their 30 minute cardio workouts on their cave walls.



They just didn’t do it. They just moved. That’s all they did and it’s all you have to do too, in terms of exercise.



So if it’s not six to seven days a week for 30 minutes, then how much exercise is the minimum you should be doing?



Three to six hours a week - anytime. Just move when you feel like it, rest when you don’t. It’s that simple. This program will give you all you need to know about how, when and where.



And if you’re good at math and saying “wait a minute, those numbers are just about the same,” then you’re right. They are. But it’s all about perspective. This whole article series from my book "The Busy Person's Fitness Solution" (www.TheBusyPersonsFitnessSolution.com) is about changing your perspective.



If I tell you that you need to workout for seven days a week and you miss two days, what happens? You realize you’ve created an impossible goal.



Eventually you’ll lose some steam and start to feel bad that you’re not sticking to the program.



Further along in this book, I’ve laid out a simple way for you to keep track of your activity using a point system instead of hours. All you need to do is accumulate a certain number of points a week and you’re on the fast track for fitness success. You can use it or you can keep track of hours, just don’t get caught in the “number of days” exercise trap.



You won’t believe how easy it really is.



Big Health and Fitness Lie #5: No Pain, No Gain



I thought this saying went out with the bodybuilding craze of the 80’s, but I am still amazed to hear people mutter those 4 words in the middle of a tiring workout.



You know you shouldn’t be hurting, you know that the “no pain, no gain” philosophy is wrong, but you’re still pushing too hard.



Pain means stop.



And this is exactly what I make sure anyone I’m working with does when they’re in pain. I want you to do the same.



Your body diagnoses what’s going on inside with extreme efficiency. If something smells, you don’t eat it. If something tastes bad, you spit it out. If something rubs, you get a blister.



If something is getting damaged, you feel pain.



Why on earth do we continue to push through this pain?



There are probably a few reasons. One that I think is most revealing is that we’ve applied a mental ideal or construct to combat a physical fact.



If you’re a salesman and you don’t like cold calling, but go out and call 1000 people, you’ll most likely be rewarded by more sales, a bigger paycheck and a nice new car. That makes sense. This is the mental “No pain, no gain.”



You have to break out of your comfort zone.



But on the physical side, pain is a fact - not a mental construct. If you have pain in your lower back, there is actually a physical issue, muscular or skeletal, that needs attention. If you keep doing whatever it is that is hurting you, you will eventually do irreparable damage.



The salesman isn’t in this type of danger - he just doesn’t like making phone calls. This is an emotional belief or a discomfort, not a physical fact. He will not tear a muscle and not be able to physically walk away from his desk if he makes a couple of calls.



An important distinction between pushing mentally and pushing physically is that your body has limits, your mind does not. If it hurts, don’t do it. Assess if you’re doing it right, and then try it again.



If it hurts twice, give it a rest and maybe try again another day.



Don’t force your fitness and risk an injury that could damage your body and interfere with your health and fitness for the rest of your life.



This article is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni's "The Busy Person's Fitness Solution" which can be found at www.TheBusyPersonsFitnessSolution.com



The 7 Big Health and Fitness Lies About Optimal Health and Weight L...



Health and Fitness Lie #6: Running and Walking Are Hard on Your Knees.



Revised: Running and walking incorrectly in poorly designed shoes are hard on your knees.



If we weren’t supposed to walk and run, we wouldn’t have legs and feet. Our bodies don’t have wheels. We have legs and feet and toes and they all play an important part in our locomotion (the way we move).



Put those feet and toes into a pair of poorly designed shoes and suddenly the foot goes dumb.



Worse, over time, we get bunions, our toes overlap, and our arches collapse. Each structural failure builds on the next, destroying our natural shock absorbers - our feet - and changes the way we walk.



I want you to find a shoe right now and take a close look at it. Compare it to your foot. Looks different, right?



Why do we need a shoe with a padded rubber heel that is over twice the width of our own human heel? Are our heels not good enough? Is our design inherently flawed?



The shoe companies have made you think that this technology transcends nature - that it is a necessity to have padded feet with monstrous heels. What they haven’t told us is that it’s causing us to walk incorrectly.



Those heels are hurting our knees, hips and lower backs.



Millions of people are in pain because there’s no one to tell them that they’ve been fed a marketing message that is fallacious. What’s worse is that our doctors and physicians have been sold on it as well.



They’re the professionals telling you not to run. Not to walk. Not to do one of the most efficient, fat-burning activity of them all. No wonder you’re confused. These are the people we’ve been told to trust.



But don’t blame them. They’re not at fault, and they’re definitely not out to hurt you.



Doctors and physicians are specialists in their particular fields of medicine. They have been trained to treat and diagnose illness. Some have been trained in preventative medicine and fitness that they pass along to their patients.



Does that mean they’re running and walking experts? Not unless it’s printed on their diploma (or other certifications). If they’re not working in their area of specialty, then chances are they haven’t done much testing and training with people to experientially know what can be accomplished by even the most debilitated people. So they pass along the misinformation they’ve heard from magazines and studies and we do what they say because - as a society - we generally believe what our doctors tell us to do.



What I’m saying is not a knock on the medical field, it is an observation. I’ll be the first to tell you that you still need to trust your doctor, but at the same time start taking control of your own health and question what you’ve been told.



Big Health and Fitness Lie #7: Set Reasonable Goals Based on Your Lifestyle In Order To Succeed.



Translation: Set the benchmark low, because there are no more important things in your life than your health.



No wonder we’re fat. We’ve put our health on the backburner.



If you don’t think that your health is the absolute most important thing there is, you better rethink your goals.



Yes, goals do work. In fact, a good portion of this book is on goal setting, visualization, looking at your past success and making your goals a reality.



But when I hear that in order to succeed you don't have to shoot for the moon, when you could have the stars, I cringe.



Do you think star quarterbacks set goals to win 5 or 6 games in a 16 game regular season?



Do you think CEO’s tell the board that they’re planning on being just a little bit in the red?



Do you ever get in the car and head out to the grocery store, then turn around because you’re satisfied you’ve made it halfway?



Then why is everyone in the health and fitness industry telling you that you should compromise your own optimal wellbeing?



Your health and fitness should be the most important priority in your life. Without it, you cannot do ANYTHING, because you’re DEAD.



NEVER compromise your health goals. As far as I know, we only have one chance here on this planet, so don’t listen to someone who thinks you should live a mediocre and half-baked life.



I want you to make your goals big and take big action. Don’t be reasonable.



It’s your life, live it with excitement, great health, fitness and vibrancy!



This article is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni's "The Busy Person's Fitness Solution" which can be found at www.TheBusyPersonsFitnessSolution.com



The 7 Big Health and Fitness Lies About Optimal Health and Weight L...





About the author

Kevin Gianni is a health advocate, author and speaker. He has helped thousands of people in over 85 countries learn how to take control of their health--and keep it. To view his popular internet TV Show "The Renegade Health Show" (and get a free gift!) with commentary on natural health issues, vegan and raw food diets, holistic nutrition... .





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