Health is not sexy
Let me explain what I mean.
As a society, we love quick fixes like next day delivery. However, that doesn’t always apply to our health and wellness, but money-hungry people will make you believe it’s possible. A small pill. A juice cleanse. An x-week long challenge. Avoiding certain foods or avoiding eating at certain times. All with the promise you’ll drop to your goal weight, feel better and all your problems will magically resolve themselves.
Yeah… no, it doesn’t work like that, but some people just cover their ears and close their eyes to that fact because it’s not the answer they want to hear. And I don’t blame them! I completely understand the need and frustration. Years of trying all these different methods and at the end - disappointment. Not understanding why progress was being made, then having progress lost, then back they’re back at stage 1 again. It can be an endless, vicious cycle. What makes me angry is that feeling of disappointment is often directed at the client rather than the thing that’s not working. It’s always explained away as “the client didn’t try hard enough” or “they didn’t follow all the rules strictly enough” instead of…. “It just didn’t work for them because it was unrealistic for them and their lifestyle”.
I’ve noticed a pattern. Take for example, you. You have a history with food, from when you were breastfed or formula fed, what foods you were weaned with, what foods were comforting to you in childhood and remind you of home, to what food is available to you based on proximity, price, availability etc. Imagine how complicated all that is. Food has impacted you in so many very deep ways. But you have some desires or needs that you want to change. Here comes Mr Joe QuickFix with a pill/shake/whatever and promises you this thing will help. They literally overlook everything about you. And they do this to the next person and the next, all with equally complicated histories. And that’s supposed to work for all of them people. It’s literally like the following meme…
(1)
And these miracle cures sometimes lead to a worsened relationship with food, degraded body image, and damaged self-worth. The reason why these quick fixes exist is because, for them, it takes too much time, skill, and investment to treat people individually. Also, because they can make it sound ‘sexy’ and ‘enticing’. It is simply a scheme trying to get clients through the doors and feed that desire for instant results and gratification without care for the individual as a whole.
Each person deserves true advice tailored to them and their lifestyle. Health behaviour change is hard, but it can be made easier with the appropriate help.
So next time you see a claim that is too good to be true….it probably is. Listen to your gut.
References:
(1) https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/06/arts/this-is-fine-meme-dog-fire.html