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Diet Gurus & Diet Scams
Article care of Don Lemmon
I have been in the fitness industry since I first picked up a barbell at age 16. When I felt results, coming from delayed onset muscle soreness, I wanted the entire world to know I was going to be great one day! Unfortunately, I didn't realize that soreness was a bad sign. And when I discovered this fact, I decided the next step was learning as much as I could so that others could in turn, learn from me as well.
Never again would someone tell me I was stupid for thinking soreness was a good thing. Never again would someone tell me I was too skinny or too fat. Never again! Never again would it happen to me.
Accidental Instructors
However, not everyone I have met along the way got into fitness because they wanted to look better, feel better or teach others. No, they sometimes fell into it by accident. They begin working out, see some results, and probably good results; but despite their never reaching an optimal potential, and because most people haven't a clue otherwise, people will turn to them for advice, which in turn make those that are only seeing marginal gains, instructors.
It is great that some people turn a hobby into a business, but that isn't any more right than the people who diet down using questionable methods to do a photo shoot selling their advice. They aren't selling a lifestyle. They are selling you band-aids that do nothing to heal your wounds. You can't teach people how to damage themselves in route to a temporary look. That isn't good business and it isn't ethical.
Clowns Of The Fitness Game
You have seen many of these clowns at all levels of the fitness game. First we have magazine publishers who were never in as good of shape as any of the spokesmodels used in their ads.
Next, we have the staff writers for these magazines that have never seen their own feet, let alone their abdominal muscles.
And finally, we have personal trainers who gain all their knowledge by reading what these con artists have put in print. It is crazy, I know, and I have been watching it for years.
Armies Of The Internet
Now that we have the internet there seems to be an army made up of anyone and everyone who can pay to have a website made, claiming themselves to be a guru.
There are many who take drugs, others that diet away as much fat as possible for that one photo shoot used to market their goods and others that hide from the camera Viola, you are still sucked in. I just cannot fall for it.
Parades Of Panties
What do these people look like when they aren't dieted down? When they are just out and about living their lives? I bet it is not what you see on their sites.
Average Day For A Guru?
Hey, I am not one to parade around in my panties for your approval either, but I am married to one of the sexiest adult models ever, and you don't think I landed her looking like a slob do you? Would she have retired completely from work if I weren't successful enough to support her? Think about it.
A Tip Or Two
Pictures Lie
Let me give you a tip or two. One, if you run across a website by a fitness trainer claiming to be a consultant to the stars or whatever, find out what stars. Do you want to look like that star? Does that star exist?
You can click on my testimonials and see names of people I bet you wished you looked like or know of either way. On top of that, just because someone says on their site that clients see results, does not mean you will too. Often, the star looked good before the trainer even met them... nothing changed.
Why the hype then? They are trying to sell you something like with the photos these people use holding up newspapers to verify the dates of the picture.
Come on now. I can take a photo on May 1st holding up a Time Magazine cover from April 30th and then take another holding up a magazine from May 30th. But what if I waited until I am in my best shape ever to take that 2nd photo, possibly a year later, holding up an old magazine to fool you. Yes, they do this folks.
A Degree In Zilch
I know some of these people also try to use a degree or certification to profess their abundant knowledge into the secrets of nutrition and exercise but think about this too; if all it took were a degree to be so clever, why aren't all people with the same degree selling the same ideas?
A Short History Of The Low-Carbohydrate Diet.
The low carb diet has been the diet news story of the last decade. But believe it or not, it didn't start with Dr. Atkins or with Dr. Di Pasquale's Anabolic or Metabolic Diets. It actually started with a London undertaker more than 140 years ago.
Why don't all people with the same certification look alike? Why are most physicians (such as Dr Atkins, Barry Sears and others) looking as if they have never exercised a day in their lives if they hold the keys to true health?
The answer to all these questions can be summed up with one statement: Because none of it matters. The truth isn't taught by riding the bandwagon of assembly line or 'cookie cutter" certifications and degrees.
I have formal schooling but do I boast about it? No way. I use scarcely little of what was offered from institutions of higher learning to get where I am. It amazes me as well, but it is true.
Really, if I needed a special title to teach the things I know in basic forms you can grasp, then wouldn't you need a special title to learn it as well? No. See how simple that is? Titles mean nothing. Applicable knowledge is everything.
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