Please "Fix Me!!"

Here I go on my soapbox again. Why is it that there seems to be an attitude of "fix me." A lot of people want to lose weight,get healthier, or get rid of pain but really do not want to do the necessary work. It's much easier to take drugs or have someone else do the work. The reality is that drugs may take away pain temporarily, drugs may help you lose weight initially and drugs may trick your body into feeling healthier but it's not a long term solution. You must take an integrated approach to health and fitness by doing much of the work yourself. Here is an example you see a chiropractor and can't seem to hold your adjustments maybe you should look at an exercise program that conditions the spinal stabilizers so that they hold the vertebrae in place better.

Now I do believe drugs can help with certain conditions but they should not be the only form of treatment or the only thing you use to lose weight. I'm going to pick on ALLI because it's a good example of how far people will go to lose weight without exercising. If you take ALLI and eat junk food guess what you could crap your pants!! It even says a warning about this in a more discreet way on the manual that comes with it. I heard a woman being interviewed when it was released, she said "I don't have time to exercise so this is what I'm going to do!" So she would rather risk having an accident in public than start exercising and eating better. How pathetic!!

Really the best thing we can do to alleviate pain, lose weight and start to feel better is start to move more, learn to move better(shameless plug for personal training) and eat less crap and more whole foods. The more I train the more I realize that God really made the best machine ever designed when it comes to our bodies. They are set up to work efficiently but we screw it up by letting ourselves go. It's no different than maintaining a house or car if you don't keep the parts in good working order the structure or engine will cease to function.

People need to get this through their heads. They often say "I have a bad back or bad knee" really when you observe them you can usually see the following:
(All which lend to more stress on the joints)
1.)They are overweight
2.)They have poor core stability and balance
3.)Their muscles are out of balance from sitting all day
4.)Their movement is faulty

All these things can be improved with exercise and nutrition. Does that mean you can completely cure post surgery joints or degenerative discs? No but you can definitely get the body to move more optimally and restore function to a high level. Having surgery isn't death sentence and neither is growing older. I have a 77 year old client who is in better shape now than 10 years ago.

The bottom line is doctors, chiros, massage therapists and trainers are great at assisting you to get to your goal whether it be pain management, weight loss, or general fitness but you need to do some of the work on your own. My dad used to say "do it the hard way, and you get it done right." I used to scoff at that but now I realize that maybe he was right and we as a society need to take more responsibility for our health, and get off out butts and start taking a proactive approach to our health versus a reactive one by eating better and getting more active.