Forget Fitness Trends

Published by sspt on

Featured_sspt_fitness_social_media

SIMON SAYS : Forget the diet plans, the exercise guides, the TV celebrity programs, but most of all, that social media exists. Exercise & Be Healthy, because it matters! To you, by you, for only you!

There’s a big majority of people chasing health & fitness goals for the wrong reasons. Those of us who grew up pre 2000’s, our motivation was our sporting idols, our parents, our coaches etc, to basically inspire our individual pursuit of achieving greatness by improving our abilities.

Today, we are drowning in social media, diet trends, e-books, celebrity guides and more. Our excuses on why we can’t achieve anything have increased. The rush and impatient behaviour to look fit, without understanding the journey and work involved, is mind boggling to trainers like myself. The ignorance that exists, but willingness to follow so called experts without learning or understanding the basic knowledge on health & fitness is frustratingly growing.

It’s saddening how many people have no base line idea of what eating healthy is or means and no idea on simple ways to maintain fitness levels.
We’ve lost the WHY and focused only on the HOW.
“I want to look like her”
“I wish I had her life”
“I want a body/abs like that”

AS A TRAINER :

The amount of times I get asked about what to eat, what exercises to do, to simply lose weight, be thin, stop feeling crap etc is beyond a handful on a daily basis. I could say, “eat dirt” and some would honestly probably say “really?” before they’d say “why?”

MY ERA :

I was born in ’83 and we just lived outdoors.
There was no smartphones, no social media, the only thing we cared about was play. Getting dirty, riding bikes, kicking a football, going to the beach, meeting new kids in the neighbourhood, to soon enough have water bomb wars or build cubby houses with, was what we looked forward to. The only competition was in sport, or playtime. The only attention seeking done was in who was I going to play with today. The only comparisons had, was who was faster, or had the coolest bike.

We didn’t care about image. We didn’t seek likes or comments on every life event or take 1000’s of photo’s of ourselves for recognition. We just did shit because it was fun, it was active, it stimulated our imaginations and creativity. We went on adventures just in our local parks or backyards.

THE POINT :

We were fit. Super fit, compared to the majority these days. Most of us still play team sports. Consider fitness based activities fun or challenging and not impossible nightmares. We are healthy! Why? Our parents! Our sporting idols. They taught us if you eat healthy, you will have superman’s powers. You will never get sick.
You will grow big & strong!
(yeah, who remembers hearing that one-liner every time you saw vegetables!)

OUR PRE 2000 GENERATION :
Those who aren’t fit or healthy though today, would most likely have fallen into society’s traps :

1) Drinking.
Regularly. Because we’ve most likely been around influences that led us to believe it’s the norm, it’s what’s expected, “everyone does”. So it’s led to a down slope of one’s fitness and health habits.

2) Work.
Being a hard worker, based on a life passion is great, it’s worth all the admiration. But endless work that’s maybe not a passion, with no apparent time to be active outdoors and eating a healthy balanced lifestyle, is a very common trait that’s taken over the more active kid version of ourselves, but where we need to re-learn ‘balance’ is the key to having the best of both worlds.

3) Societal Pressure.
Times change and so do people. So trying to fit in, or stay up with technology, can seem important, because it seems necessary. Maybe our friends, family or work colleagues have influenced our more common bad habits. Trends become so popular most can’t help but follow too.

4) Lost Connection.
Some have become so disconnected from that youthful self, or been so enslaved to the work life, they’ve simply forgotten how to be healthy & fit. They feel maybe that there’s so many new aspects to fitness & health that what they thought they once knew, isn’t so anymore. So many trends, trainers and bad information flooding the health & fitness industries, everyone’s feeling a little overwhelmed when it comes to knowing what the right answer is, because they never stayed up to date over the years.

forget_fitness_healthTHE NEW GENERATION :
Those who are the modern day techies though seem to be the spawn of this modern trap :

1) Social Media
It has become the sole influence.
What the parents say must be wrong. Maybe they don’t say anything. Maybe you simply ignore them because the ‘online expert or celebrity’ tells you to believe something.

Everyone’s posting daily “selfie’s, food pics, going to the gym poses, mountain climbs” that it’s consuming. It makes any average person feel either uncomfortable with themselves or resentful towards each other.

Don’t get me wrong, it can be a source of positive motivation for some. Everything has it’s yin and yang.
BUT and a massive one at that, it’s in desperate need of a proper workout, to reshape the mindsets and get back to reality.

Remember the popular modern saying :
“Don’t compare your behind-the-scenes to other’s online highlights reels”
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and the rest are all just advertising boards for people to create personas, posters and impostors of themselves, for likes, comments and recognition.

SIMON SAYS : WHAT WE NEED TO REMEMBER : (or learn for some)

1) Because it matters!
We all used to do things for ourselves, because it mattered to us, because it felt good, it felt right, it made us happy.

2) Enjoyment!
We were active because we enjoyed it, we ventured, we explored for our own curiosity and NOT to show off because it seems cool.

3) Thirst for Knowledge!
We learned about food and fitness from our coaches, mentors and parents to become experts, but now everyone’s an expert without the proper knowledge to first taste, instead now we just copy n paste!

4) The Great Sell Off!
Diet plans, exercise guides and celebrity programs, were all created for one purpose, to make money. It’s all just simple information we’re all able to find and learn ourselves, or through experience. But it became easy to repackage that simple information and sell what you should already know back to you.

IN FINAL :
So before I put myself out of work, I’ll remind you of my role.
I became a trainer to help “re-educate” and encourage passion and knowledge, through my own continued learning, of the SIMPLE ways to get and stay fit & active. Also to encourage you to start caring again about the WHY and not the HOW when it comes to being healthy.

I love fitness (sport), always will, no matter what type it is. I love it, because of how it makes me feel. I hate the feeling of not being able to do something, but not to the point of not trying, but the point of pushing myself to be able to do.

I love being healthy, and learning about it, again, because how it makes ME feel. Knowing what I put in my body is about keeping me 100% because I hate the idea of being sick, tired, overweight or hungover.

SO SIMON SAYS :
FORGET others, do for yourself and stop posting about it, honestly, no one cares.
FORGET trends, guides, programs etc, just get active doing anything and everything and start enjoying it, start adventuring again, find the active kid in you.
FORGET diets and trends. Eat healthy because it matters! Because your body only needs good food, none of that junk, sugary or alcoholic crap.
Learn (research) if you don’t know!
Stop following examples and start leading by example!
Live in reality, not online.


0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Avatar placeholder

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *