THREE TRUTHS ABOUT FITNESS THE HEALTH INDUSTRY DOESN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW
Friends, I know we just met, but I love you already. The fact that you’re reading this means you too are fed up with the contradicting, confusing bullshit being spewed at us about the “true” way to health and fitness.
Prepackaged food, point systems, demonizing food groups…one Google search on losing fat is enough to drive a woman to down a full bag of Cool Ranch Doritos…and be right back to Googling fat loss.
Pause. Breathe.
We’re here to spread the truth. We’re here to help you understand that true health and fitness come down to math and science, not point systems and marketing hype. Most of all, we’re here to show you that you can do this. There’s no secret pill. There’s no genetic one-upping at play. There’s math. There’s science. There’s truth. Let’s get to it.
TRUTH #1: YOU DON’T NEED POINT SYSTEMS OR PRE-PACKAGED MEALS
Fat loss comes down to one thing and one thing only: eating fewer calories than you burn (aka being in a caloric deficit). This can be done by adjusting your diet to ensure you eat less than you burn, upping your exercise to burn more than you eat, or both.
The only thing point systems are doing is putting you in a caloric deficit.
If you were to buy a company’s prepackaged meals but not do their point system, you wouldn’t lose fat. The reason these companies work is that their point systems are designed to put you in a caloric deficit.
Will it work? Yes. Will you spend a LOT of money on prepackaged food and be led to believe your goals are only attainable if you stick to their system? Most likely. Will you gain the weight back once you stop using their system because you haven’t addressed the underlying mental side to this: the knowledge of how it truly works, the habits it takes to sustain a healthy lifestyle and the limiting beliefs holding you back? Guaranteed.
Listen: You can do this on your own. All you need are knowledge, consistency and time. You don’t need point systems, you don’t need prepackaged meals and you certainly don’t need to rely on someone else’s “system” to be successful in your fitness journey.
TRUTH #2: CARBS ARE NOT THE ENEMY
Oh, carbs. Beautiful, delicious carbs. You’ve got such a bad rap for all your deliciousness. The truth is, carbs won’t make you fat. Eating more calories than you burn in a day will make you fat.
The rationale behind these low carb diets is this: Your body burns carbs for energy first. If no carbs are available, it will turn to fat to burn. The issues, however, are A) Carbs are what give us energy. I don’t know about you, but if I were to cut out all carbs, I should be required by law to wear a Warning: Angry Bitch On the Loose sign around my neck. I’d be low energy, cranky and just…blah. Not exactly the symbol of health and fitness I aspire to be. B) It’s not sustainable. At some point-a week, a month, a year if you’re a superhuman freak of nature, you’re going to start eating carbs again. Your body, having been deprived of them for so long, is gonna cling to those carbs like a momma’s boy on his first day of Kindergarten.
This the reason people on low carb diets not only gain back the weight that they lost but typically gain even more when they go off of them.
Figure out your numbers (or get a coach who can help you with that part), stay in a caloric deficit. Eat your carbs. Enjoy life. Boop.
TRUTH #3: TRUE HEALTH COMES FROM THE INSIDE OUT
There’s a reason you’ve started and stopped your health journey more times than you care to count…and it has nothing to do with your level of motivation or the slow metabolism your family says you have.
We all hold limiting beliefs about ourselves, many of which we aren’t aware, simply because we haven’t shined the light of awareness on them…yet.
Maybe yours is: “Who am I kidding? I’m not strong.” Maybe it’s: “My whole family is overweight. I’m destined to be as well.” Maybe it’s even: “People who are in shape are egotistical.” Whatever your poison, these thoughts, these beliefs, block us from accomplishing our goals and living the biggest, badassiest life of our dreams.
To experience true, lasting health, we must train our minds along with our bodies.
This means identifying limiting beliefs. This means becoming aware of how our thoughts affect our feelings and, therefore, our actions. This means learning to be our own internal coach and cheerleader, not bashing ourselves and treating ourselves worse than Billy Finkelstein did in the 6th grade. (Billy’s gonna be eatin’ his heart when he next sees you.)
It is only by learning to be in control of our thoughts, by training our minds to work for us, not against us, and by developing habits-not quick fixes-that we develop a truly sustainable lifestyle.
There’s no secret pill to this. There’s no luck to this. Just consistent, dedicated work, inside and out. Anyone can do that. You just need to decide it’s time. Not another day, not another hour, not another minute. Decide that it’s time to do this once and for all, get educated on how (starting with doing this according to math and science, not mass marketing hype), and, most importantly, Do. Not. Stop.
Ready to put this to work? Check out our free PDF download, 7 Keys to Making it Stick.
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And, just because we love you oh so much, you can grab even more healthy goodness in our bi-weekly newsletter, MindStrong Connected.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RACHEL SLOTNICK
Rachel Slotnick is the owner and head coach of MindStrong Fitness. A lifelong love affair with health and fitness, combined with a desire to help others ignite their inner spark and unleash their best self, led her to found MindStrong, a company taking an inside out approach to health. Rachel came into the fitness world to spread truth. In an industry full of misleading marketing, she believes in teaching people how to live a healthy, sustainable lifestyle according to math and science, not marketing hype. This begins with training our minds-learning to be aware of and in control of our thoughts, understanding how our thoughts affect our feelings and actions and developing new habits, all of which set us up for true strength, inside and out.
