FItness's Secret
January 11th 2007 11:00
Hyperbole must surely be the most important figure of speech for the publishers of fitness magazines.Those that populate the coveted check-out area of my favorite grocery seem to live or die by it. The headlines that they plaster across the their covers convey a steady stream of overstated claims that probably do little more than sell magazines to the unwary and the desperate. If you genuinely wish to become fit they are of less than little value to you.
Fitness headlines seem to fall into two broad categories of exaggeration. Some claim to offer the "secrets" of various things like weight loss or shape up and others seem to guarantee that they can get results in delightfully short time. These are usually combined with broad claims that the something to be revealed does not require much by the way of intense work or more than ordinary exertion. Upon inspection I usually find that the secrets are not secret and the time is not as short as I would expect short to be.
Here is the "no myth" version of reality. Anyone who claims to have some secret is a marketer not a fitness expert. There are no secrets to weight loss or rapid shape up. The knowledge it takes to do either is available for anyone who wishes to pursuit it. The time frames for getting from out of shape to in shape are longer than most of us would prefer, since most of us would prefer that we get the fitness we want instantaneously. Getting into shape is harder than we would wish since our fantasies never seem to factor in the sacrifices reality demands.
The truth is that the desire to get in shape or lose weight is part of a process that ultimately might result in the fact. It leads us to reach for the facile claims of magazine marketers and it leads us to seek the most for the least. At some point the desire to be in shape brings us face to face with the reality that this will be a venture that will make requirements on us. We will not be able to get there fast and no secret to speed up the process waits around the next corner. There will have to be some discomfort and exertion. If we are lucky our desire to be fit will produce the one characteristic that will insure our success-patience.
Patience is more than waiting. It is waiting and enduring the uncomfortable for as long as it takes to get what we want. Fitness is born out of regularity. Day in and day out is its yellow brick road. Its avoiding bad foods today so that we can avoid bad foods again tomorrow.
Patience makes the pursuit of knowledge endurable, since we will surely make mistakes in how we train and diet. It is the faith that we are heading in the right direction and will get there if we just keep our focus. Magazines don't sell well by emphasizng that fitness is a process and not just a result. In other words entreaties to patience don't exploit our desire for expensive things at little cost. Patience is the true path to fitness. It understands and tolerates the cost of desire's fantasies. Keep the fantasies, but cultivate patience. Your servant, as always.
Fitness headlines seem to fall into two broad categories of exaggeration. Some claim to offer the "secrets" of various things like weight loss or shape up and others seem to guarantee that they can get results in delightfully short time. These are usually combined with broad claims that the something to be revealed does not require much by the way of intense work or more than ordinary exertion. Upon inspection I usually find that the secrets are not secret and the time is not as short as I would expect short to be.
Here is the "no myth" version of reality. Anyone who claims to have some secret is a marketer not a fitness expert. There are no secrets to weight loss or rapid shape up. The knowledge it takes to do either is available for anyone who wishes to pursuit it. The time frames for getting from out of shape to in shape are longer than most of us would prefer, since most of us would prefer that we get the fitness we want instantaneously. Getting into shape is harder than we would wish since our fantasies never seem to factor in the sacrifices reality demands.
The truth is that the desire to get in shape or lose weight is part of a process that ultimately might result in the fact. It leads us to reach for the facile claims of magazine marketers and it leads us to seek the most for the least. At some point the desire to be in shape brings us face to face with the reality that this will be a venture that will make requirements on us. We will not be able to get there fast and no secret to speed up the process waits around the next corner. There will have to be some discomfort and exertion. If we are lucky our desire to be fit will produce the one characteristic that will insure our success-patience.
Patience is more than waiting. It is waiting and enduring the uncomfortable for as long as it takes to get what we want. Fitness is born out of regularity. Day in and day out is its yellow brick road. Its avoiding bad foods today so that we can avoid bad foods again tomorrow.
Patience makes the pursuit of knowledge endurable, since we will surely make mistakes in how we train and diet. It is the faith that we are heading in the right direction and will get there if we just keep our focus. Magazines don't sell well by emphasizng that fitness is a process and not just a result. In other words entreaties to patience don't exploit our desire for expensive things at little cost. Patience is the true path to fitness. It understands and tolerates the cost of desire's fantasies. Keep the fantasies, but cultivate patience. Your servant, as always.
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