Some days I wake up and feel like I’m doing it all wrong. I check my email and find about a dozen different letters from people telling me that they’ve “tried everything” and just need to “lose that last 10/20/30 pounds.” They’re asking me what I think about Shakeology, about Insanity, about Weight Watchers. They want to know which protein powder they should use to build muscle faster, or how they can workout to get thin and not build muscle at all. Am I vegan? Am I paleo? Will they lose weight faster if they stop eating bread and only do cardio? How can they lose weight fast to fit into their wedding dress NEXT WEEK!
Has my message been completely lost in translation?!
As a fitness professional and (what I’m embracing as a more appropriate title for what I do) healthy living advocate, these questions frustrate me to no end. And the only feeling greater than that of frustration is one of sadness. With all the good information that’s out there, with all the amazing people doing so many amazing things – Dr. Fred Bisci, Michael Perrine, Philip McClusky, John Robbins, Jackie Warner, Marlena Torres, Michael Pollan, Kris Carr (I could go on forever), there is STILL this mass confusion about what “healthy” really is and how to get there. It makes me sad. But then it makes me wanna SCREAM!
with Baby Summer and our urban chicken coop in 2011
So much of what I write and talk about here is inspired by my incredible followers. You’ve taught me more than I could ever teach you. In fact, I resist teaching you, because I don’t believe that’s what my calling is at all.
I have a favorite quote about parenting that I’ve carried with me for the past 14 years on a little slip of paper: “My father did not teach me how to live. He lived and let me watch him do it.” That phrase completely sums up not only my parenting style, but also how I define my role here. I live, I try, I stumble, and I let you watch me do it.
It’s all of you who inspire me.
On Monday, I asked my Facebook followers, “What do you HATE about the current fitness culture? What are the ‘experts’ doing wrong?” Your answers were so incredible and REFRESHING. (CLICK HERE to read the thread.) When shown the truth, you accept it. You CRAVE it. So what I’ve realized is that it’s not you who has the problem accepting the truth about health and fitness. It’s that there’s TOO MUCH GARBAGE out there to sort through in order to find even a little bit of good information. I know that when I started my journey, I was starving for gurus who talked about food as nature offered it, exercise that I felt I could do, how to cultivate happiness and how to include spirituality in my fit lifestyle. Unfortunately, I was often left hungry.
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