​Diets don’t work.

I realize that being overweight or obese sucks. I truly truly get it. I’ve lived it. 

Please remember that all popular diets are exactly that. A diet’s safety is not related to its effectiveness. If you take a shortcut, expect it to come back to you later in life. Unless, that shortcut is less risky than your current health status, in which case, IF followed up properly afterward, can help be the catalyst for change. 

I understand people are desperate. I understand people don’t like to wait for things. I understand that people are frustrated. And I understand that there are many many people who cannot afford the information and individualized counselling they need. We ALL need. Please realize that popular diets normalize eating disorders. Please realize that popular diets serve to line the pockets of a few at the cost of destroying many people’s livelihoods. 

The biggest thing we as a society can do to address obesity is *not* information, because people ignore that and cherry pick what they want to affirm their opinions, anyway. We need to increase access to recreation and nutrition to our lowest socioeconomic class. We need to provide emotional support to all people, by developing healthier coping strategies. These two things alone would help SO many people. 

You are welcome to disagree with me however, nutritional science, exercise science, and behavioural science principles would back me up. Throughout my 9 year career as a personal trainer, kinesiologist, and clinical exercise physiologist, I have been inundated with information. A lot of it is quite bogus. To simply “eat well and exercise” doesn’t sound quite as convincing as “lose 30 lbs in 30 days on the XYZ diet!” Yet, the tools people need to turn the tried, tested, and true method of “eat well and exercise” is not reaching people fast enough. All I can do is continue my crusade as a health professional and as a friend and give people tools everywhere I go.