Anti-Fatness in Fitness
Anti-fatness and the focus on weight loss does not need to be part of exercise, despite its prevalence in the [toxic] Fitness Industry. Anti-fatness encourages dangerous practices and behaviors for people, especially when they are supported by anti-fat fitness professionals. When you take away weight loss as a goal, exercise can focus on mobility/functionality, stamina, and strength, which improve quality of life. These can be practiced at any size, age, or ability.
A Less SMART Approach to Goal Making
Often we make goals when we are feeling the most ambitious and motivated. These often end up being too strict or unrealistic in timeline, scope, and our current abilities. We need to take into account that life rarely goes smoothly and make sure that there is enough room for bad days and life changes to still be successful. Focusing on goals that have personal, intrinsic value and are more process over result based helps working toward your goals fun and achievable.
Why Is The Self-Improvement Industry So Full Of Scammers?
Often, the most popular “self help” books and theories are too general and vague to be really meaningful besides getting people to feel good about themselves. This is done on purpose - the more general the advice is, the more people can buy the product. The fitness industry is incorporated into a lot of the self-improvement industry because people assume that people who “look good” are happy. It’s especially easy for influencers on social media to have people believe their success because we only see pictures and snippets they want us to see, not the full story. Success and improvement at anything is a time consuming, high effort challenge that can’t be conquered with a book, set of supplements, or any single thing.
99% Of Fitness Content Is Garbage
There’s a finite amount of information that can be shared about fitness and a limited number of ways to say it. Only a small portion of the fitness industry is doing research into actually new ideas and methods. Those who aren’t doing that either produce - at best - fluff content or - at worst - misleading or unverified information.