In my life time eggs have been good for you - bad for you - good for you In my life time salt had been bad for you now salt is okay and sugar is the cause of all problems.
Yes, the science and recommendations change as research advances are made. In every field, things that were once considered correct and wise give way to new practices as science advances.
When one looks at past practices with the benefit of present knowledge, the past practices seem strange, even laughable, (examples: bleeding as a medical treatment, the sun orbiting around the earth, use of DDT). Yet we fail to appreciate that today's seemingly wise practices may very well become tomorrow's laughable ones.
The changing science and the conflicting recommendations it produces does not signal that the experts are stupid and the common people know better. It simply shows that science changes as new discoveries are made. And in this era, the changes come faster than ever before.
An important step in improving your health and fitness is to abandon the notion that there is a simple, quick fix, and that the solution can be found in a bottle or a book.
Once expediters, Diane and I now work full-time in a gym and spend a great deal of time listening to people talk about their health and fitness. We have two professional trainers on staff, one in the business 12 years, the other 22 years. We have seen them coach people into wonderful, even amazing results. We have ourselves benefited from their knowledge and coaching.
In that context, it is quite something to see unhealthy people latch onto a particular solution or belief and defend it with great enthusiasm, even when the fitness results they seek do not appear. In such cases, it is not what they don't know that hurts them, it is what they do know. What they know is not helping, but some will defend their knowledge (beliefs) to the death (literally in some cases). More than they want to be healthy and fit, they want to be right. They want to maintain their present mindset more than they want to be healthy and fit.
Among our hundreds of gym members (including some truckers), the people who talk least about their diets or techniques are the ones who are most fit and use the gym most often. The ones who talk most often about the latest diet or technique tend to remain frustrated by what they see in the mirror.
The difference is that the fit group is not looking outside themselves for the solution. They do not find the solution in a bottle or book. They find it inside themselves.
While they may read health books and use certain products (multivitamins and protein supplements, for example) they do not see the books and products as the solution. If you took away their books and products, they would still be fit.
For these people, health and fitness is not a result, it is a lifestyle. They do not set health and fitness as a goal thinking they will be done when the goal is achieved. They view their life as an ongoing health and fitness journey and they enjoy the trip. They like being healthy. They celebrate it every day.
They do not view health and fitness as a result that lies in the future. They view it as an ongoing activity, as part of who they are, as something they do every minute of every day, including this minute. They do not see health and fitness as something to be done seperately or later. They see it as something that is done in their daily walk. They do not work out and eat right so they can be healthy. In their minds, they are already healthy and they work our and eat right because that is part of who they are.
People who see health and fitness as a future result place it outside themselves and beyond the present moment. Since the desired result lies "out there," it logically follows that the solutions lie out there too; so they drift from idea to idea and remain frustrated by what they see in the mirror today, and over time as various things are tried and abandoned.
Health and fitness success is not about having the right answers. It's about developing the mindset, humility and courage required to succeed in this domain.
The mindset is about self-image. You see yourself as a healthy person, end of story. If, at the present moment, your body does not look like one that belongs to a healthy person, the will to act bubbles up from within to bring it around.
The humility is about self-acceptance; the understanding that your body and mind are not the same as those of others, the understanding that failures and setbacks are part of the journey, the understanding that much of what you now believe about health and fitness may be wrong, the willingness to open and change your mind about what works and what doesn't.
The courage is about fighting and winning the internal battle to permanently establish and continually nurture the desire and willpower to be healthy and fit. Healthy and fit people are not immune from the temptations of sweets and the desire to sit on the couch, but they have developed the inner desire and will to let those things pass and get on with healthy living.
What healthy and fit people do can be done by almost everyone. The expediters right here in the Open Forum who have made healthy transformations in their lives are proof positive of that.
The fundamental difference between healthy and fit people and those who don't like what they see in the mirror is not in the products they use or books they read; it is in the lifestyle they truly want and the actions they take this minute to have it.
Most people say they want to be healthy and fit and millions look outside of themselves for books and products that will bring it to them. The futility of that is obvious. More money than ever is spent on such things and the population is heavier than ever too.
The people who are healthy and fit have built that lifestyle from within. They make dozens of choices every day that keep them on track. They like feeling good and are continually inspired by that self-reinforcing benefit.
