Real Beauty and Its False Prophets

Have you looked at health magazines?  The false prophets who plaster the covers of magazines with titles like Glam, Women’s Health and Men’s Fitness do more to harm the public consensus of health than support it.  We live in a world that’s full of marketing messages.  From the latest fad “low-fat” diet to the sculpt your abs in 10 minutes per day messages, it’s hard to ignore what’s being pushed to you.

False Prophets #1: Fitness Models, Health Magazines

These magazines falsely promote the message that the women and men on the covers of these magazines achieve these “incredible” bodies with their crash diets and super-sets of lat pulls and esoteric equipment. Unfortunately, a sucker might overlook the fact that most male fitness models use steroids, the liberal use of the airbrush and the truth that none of the stuff they say really works.  But, you still worship that look because it’s reinforced by being on front of that magazine brand and all your friends think she/he’s hot.

What do globo gyms, women and men’s health magazines, “sculpt your XXX in YYY days” all have in common?

You buy into those plans because you are buying peace of mind.  Purchasing a globo gym membership with the latest and greatest eliptismithbodycomputer2000 or magazine with the latest diet plan gives you satisfaction because they told you it should. Why do you think the average gym member visits their gym about once per week?  It’s not fitness he/she is after; they are after that purchased gratification.  It’s certainly easier for a lazy  person to say they use a fancy gym than it is to actually get fit.

False Prophets #2: Volume and Lifestyle

“More is better” inflicts the general population with the same consumer mindset that made them go out and buy those silly diet plans. Weightloss and fitness isn’t about burning calories as much as it is a host of complicated factors such as nutrition, intensity, variety, hormones and recovery.  Although, no marketer would ever want to tell you that their product isn’t the simple solution for losing weight and staying fit.

People just assume that they can go run/swim/bike for miles and miles and erase the harms of high carb, booze laden, low-fat diets.  Sure, that may work when you are young, but your metabolism and the stress you put on your body will catch up with you.

Real Beauty

So, stepping away from fake magazines, long slow distance training, our desire to buy instant gratification, we have to realize that Real Beauty isn’t bought; isn’t a product of liposuction, crash diets, under-eating or fitting into designer jeans, and, most certainty, isn’t a purchase.

Real Beauty means working to maximize your potential as a human being.  You can never have the face or body of someone else, no matter how hard you try.  But, you can maximize your potential given your age and your genetics.  Why waste your body and mind?  Real Beauty is a process, striving to take our body and make the most out of it we can. We only get one chance to do this.

We strive to seek out and test the best methods. We offer free nutritional advice for all of you. It’s not hard to figure stuff out. The resources are there. Let’s take our constant improvement in the gym and unleash it in our lives 24/7.

Real Beauty means earning our potential through a lifelong process where we ignore false prophets and fight the easy way out because we realize it doesn’t exist.

[inspired by Again Faster post on a similar topic]