I’m not gonna lie, a lot of the stuff that goes on in the fitness industry hits my gag reflex. If I knew then, what I know now, I wouldn’t have killed off my remaining brain cells getting certified as a fitness professional. I would have just read the book.

I am a deep diver. Anything that really catches my interest, I go in deep. Like music, food, stand-up, computers, video production, web design, entrepreneurial endeavors and the my latest passion, body building.

Note: If you are working to change your body composition, you are body building. So let’s get the terms right.

In my zeal to know everything there is about a certain subject, I multi source pertinent information from every direction. I eat sleep and drink whatever “next big thing”, thing I’ve buried myself in at the moment. Much to the chagrin of loved ones and family members.

So it is with physical fitness.

My new found knowledge, besides saving my life, has not only shaved years off of my physical age and appearance, it has possibly reversed damage I’ve inflicted as a result of drug abuse, alcoholism and a bad diet. Of course, that remains to be seen.

After seeing and experiencing the results of my physical efforts and learning as much about nutrition as I could, I have come full circle on the idea that these so-called designer approaches to weight loss and six pack abs are a lot of revenue producing bullshit.

Because they are.

Diet. Diet is not a verb. Simply put, it is the food you eat to supply your human movement system with energy and nutrients. But they are trying to complicate it. “They” is them who make money by getting exotic with our basic nutritional needs. They use words like “magic, instant, secret and overnight.”

Companies use dummies with nice bodies to lure you in with the promise of a body like theirs. They conveniently omit performance enhancing drugs and good old genetics. Most of these muscle heads have no idea what’s in the product or could they spell any of the ingredients.

They’re hawking supplements that are not governed by the FDA and if they have “trade secret status” on an ingredient, they don’t have to list it at all. Trade secrets are one place where a company can bury things and you won’t have any idea what they are. The FDA allows companies to classify items that the company terms a “trade secret” in a general manner.

All they have to do to muddy the water these days, is to start talking about hormones and why you can’t lose weight. Granted, there are hormonal issues, but not on the scale these people are screaming about.

In a nutshell, there is a lot of smoke and mirrors in this industry. The more they complicate something, the more exotic they can make it, the more they make by letting you in on the secret. The FDA needs to at least rattle a few sabers in this shit house industry before it turns into another VA clusterfuck.

Having a healthy body is not magic.

The magic happens between your ears when you make the decision to eat less, move more and add resistance to your muscle groups.

‘Nuff said.