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I refer to these three things as one industry because that's what they are. Three parts of one stupid, illogical, deceitful, wasteful, narcissistic industry that is sexist, racist, elitist, and only wants to destroy people instead of improve their lives. I'm hoping more people will realize what it is and work to make it go away, because it's damaging to society and the world at large and will only get worse unless action is taken.
DIET:
The comedian Mo'Nique said it best: "The first three letters of 'diet' are D-I-E."
DIE. See that?! DIE, and no one has noticed this? The correct term is 'eating habits' NOT 'diet'. You don't have to be an expert or even study or research very long to know how food affects people and their bodies. If you don't eat enough, your mood changes, sleeping patterns change for the worse, the brain is affected, etc. On the flip side, eating too much leads to stomach aches, nausea, a major drop in energy, etc. Eating enough, but not getting the proper nutrients (for example, think potato chips, noodles, snack cakes, any processed white foods) also has a negative effect on the body. So why are 'diets' so often and widely encouraged? They're based on restrictions, obsession, and shame. Restrictions, because of so-called 'bad' foods (no such thing as 'bad' food), obsessions because dieters only think about their diets and their whole lives revolve around those diets, and shame because people are made to feel shame when they fail.
This is where common sense should come into play. No one likes being told what to do or what they can and cannot eat, so why do so many people follow diets? 'Eat this instead of that'. 'Stop eating before you're full'. 'Put down the fork between bites.' 'Use smaller dishes.' 'Drink more water when you feel hungry'. That's some major BS right there! Forget diets and the quacks who make them up! I'm going to eat whatever I want, WHEN I want it, HOWEVER I want it. I'm going to stop eating when I'm full. I'm NOT about to drink water if I'm hungry, because I'm NOT thirsty, I'm HUNGRY and I can tell the difference. Speaking of water, it's plain. I don't like it compared to drinks with flavor. I enjoy taste. I make sure not to gorge myself (stomach aches are not fun) and be mindful of MODERATION. Plate size doesn't matter, because if I really like a particular food, I'm going back for seconds, sometimes thirds, and usually after the first serving, the second one is half the size anyway. Guess what? Most people are the same way. Why should people allow themselves to be talked down to like they're stupid by some morons who don't care about them and only want their money? Food is good. There's nothing wrong with enjoying food. If food wasn't supposed to be enjoyed, humans would barely have a sense of taste. Sometimes all I have a taste for are cookies and potato chips and sometimes a hearty salad or soup is what I want. Sometimes all my body wants is sweet foods and sometimes all it wants are savory and salty foods. Sometimes I don't have much appetite at all, and instead I nibble. Either way, I usually get all that my body needs, and no book or plan or pretend 'expert' told me anything. I'm not a better or worse person because of what I eat, and no one else is, either. People need to tell diets to "shove it" and just eat what they want, because in the end, when they're old, they'll be wishing they could eat certain things.
EXERCISE:
I know you've seen the commercials and advertisements. Super-toned muscular individuals (who, in my opinion look like they take steroids) with fake tans and oils put on them to make them look like they're sweating, saying you too can have a body like theirs, if only you buy the equipment. You too can strut around in a bikini if you copy them. You too can be 'ripped' and 'cut' and have all the ladies lust after you. IT'S ALL LIES, DON'T BELIEVE ANY OF IT. Unless all you do all day is work out, you will NEVER have a body like theirs. They're waxed, plucked, and Photoshopped to within an inch of oblivion. Exercise equipment shouldn't require an engineering degree to put that crap together. Simple and basic are best. A good work out can't only be obtained in the gym. Then they have those infamous 'Before and After' photos. PHOTOSHOP. How come there has never been a commercial that shows fat, flabby, or out of shape people using the equipment, and later transforming? Oh sure, they might have a fat person's body be shown using a machine, but they always get a different person to show the 'end result'. It's not accurate. You know how else it's a lie? You never see people with stretchmarks. If a fat person loses a major amount of weight, whether quickly or slowly, they always have stretchmarks. The same with flabby people who tone up or bulk up. The skin is stretched, but in the commercials everyone's skin is flawless. They get people who were already a certain way to sell their lie.
Why do so many people think exercise can only be obtained in a gym or video? This is something they don't want people to realize, but any physical activity can be a work out. Just regular stuff around the house can be used as weights. Like the chairs. Or any kids nearby. Or any pets nearby. Walking around in the grocery store is a work out, if you think about it. I'm just saying. Also, why are so many extra things 'required' for exercise? Special mats and clothes and such. Just put on some random clothes and move. Here's another thing, stretching is a work out too. But the Yoga and Pilates aren't absolutely necessary. You can sit on the floor and just reach for your feet. Bending like a pretzel is just plain frustrating and sometimes uncomfortable. Yoga is a form of medidation from another culture. Why has it been bastardized by the industry? It's purpose is supposed to be for personal reflection and obtaining inner peace, NOT so some shallow people can prance half-naked on a beach. Pilates, I don't know what the heck that is. It took stretching, made it unnecessariy difficult, and then started charging people money. Absurd.
One other thing about exercise. I'm tired of people being shamed into doing it. Just because you work out doesn't make you a virtuous person. It doesn't make you better. Just because you DON'T like to work out, it doesn't make you lazy or immoral. Don't believe the lies. Exercise is just like anything in that some people are interested in it, and some aren't. It's not for everyone. Instead, just do something, a physical activity, you enjoy. If you like to dance, dance your heart out. Sing until you fall aleep. Find someone to go on a walk with you (or offer to walk a dog for someone). If you like to play video games, you know you get excited about them, so stand up more when you play so you can kick and punch as well as scream at the characters. Physical activity should be fun, not a chore, and if you can't move because of paralysis or surgery or something, then work your mind. It's good for you just the same (but if you're paralyzed or can't move as much, have someone move your limbs for you, to prevent blood clots). Sometimes I like to walk and jog or swim a couple miles. Sometimes I don't feel like doing anything. It's all fine.
WEIGHTLOSS:
Stuff like Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, NutriSystem and anything else are all a bunch of crap. They'be been around for decades, and there are STILL fat people. That should tell people that they don't work. Not only that, but the people who use them often gain back the weight they lost. You wouldn't keep buying a laundry detergent that can't remove stains, why keep buying a system that can't make you thin? What really ticks me off about these things is that they demonize fat people, which is just WRONG. There is NOTHING wrong with being fat, just like there's NOTHING wrong with being thin, or short, or tall, or whatever. It's simply a physical appearance. Don't even bother telling me about studies and statistics, because there are just as many that state fat isn't the problem. The BMI is BS. Weight is NOT an indicator for health and it does NOT determine health. People love to list the stereotypes: high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, etc. Guess what? Those issues aren't because of weight. If fat was so horrible, there wouldn't be any fat people, because they would have died off long ago. Diabetes is caused by a sugar or protein imbalanace. It can happen to ANYONE. High blood pressure, that's a result of stress and the artificial crap people eat. It can happen to ANYONE. To say that fat people are more likely to have cancer is just idiotic. Cancer can strike anyone. It ticks me off when people assume fat people are lazy, ugly, eat too much, etc. NOT true. Laziness doesn't care about size; just think of all the people who park as close to the door as possible, or call pizza delivery instead of going to get it, or buy most of their meals instead of cook, or use elevators instead of stairs. Ugly people are ugly because they just are. Size doesn't determine attractiveness. As for eating too much, fat people and thin people eat more or less the same amounts, so it's not a matter of overeating (think about it: dieters are often starving themselves, so wouldn't they always end up skinny?).
That's what irritates me about Idiot Craig, Weight Bashers, and NutriStarve. It should be obvious it's all a scam, simply because you have to buy their products. I don't know about you, but anyone who tells me their way is the ONLY way to go isn't worth any attention, in my opinion. Also, check out their advertisements. Geared toward women, featuring middle-aged women. We all know that as people get older they naturally gain weight, and some gain more weight due to multiple reasons. But again, they make the bone-headed assumption that weight = health, which is NOT true. Those women I bet didn't become any healthier, they just wanted to look like teenagers again, or as close to it as they could. About health. Why have so many people been brainwashed to believe the BMI (Body Mass Index) is a good measure for health? All it does is calculate weight against height to get a number! It doesn't take into account mass, muscle tone, or anything else. According to the BMI, athletes are 'overweight' and 'obese', as are tall people. Obesity. It's simply defined as having excess body fat and is a measure of fat/muscle ratio, but unless a test is done, it's stupid to point out who this could be. ANYONE can have excess body fat. Thin women who are pregnant have excess body fat. People, regardless of size, who don't regularly work out and build their muscles or have atrophy have excess body fat. Sick people in hospitals, sick people in general have excess body fat. Babies are pretty much ALL body fat! See where I'm going with this? It's pretty darn ignorant to single out a fat person because of BMI, when the skinny person standing next to them could have the same relative amount. People often don't look like how they really are (for example, smoking is still glamorized, but if people's exteriors looked like their insides, smoking would end real quick). Weight isn't the end-all-be-all of health, and weightloss shouldn't be promoted as the answer to life's problems. If you're ugly, it doesn't matter how skinny you are. Same with if you're mean, shy, poor, whatever.
Another component about weightloss involves clothing. Half the time people want to lose weight because of some stupid garment. So instead of shaming people into forcing their bodies into stuff that doesn't fit them, the clothing and fashion industry needs to treat ALL sizes equally and stop praising thinness (tiny clothes are cute, but larger ones tend to look like great-grandma's curtains). It's absurd to ridicule and ignore the very people that fuel the clothing industry and fatten the wallets of designers and stores. Also, DOWN WITH BIKINIS. It's a strange concept: people have no problem being seen almost naked, but don't want others to see their underwear. It's the same thing. Too much emphasis is placed on what a body looks like. A lot more people would enjoy life more if it wasn't a 24/7 body contest.
I truly HATE this whole industry. One final thought about it. How come more people don't realize it's brainwashing and mind control? That's a dangerous thing, you know. Just look at history.
I think the whole industry needs to be boycotted and destroyed. Stop looking at magazines. Change channels or just turn off the TVs. Demand that online ads stop shoving them in people's faces. We'd all be MUCH better off, and just think of how much more society and the world would improve if people weren't avoiding food, hurting themselves on machines, or subjecting themselves to humiliation and scorn.
Again, sorry if this rant is long, but I've got a lot to say about stuff.