The holidays and health and fitness advice go together like peanut butter, jelly, mirrors, and biceps curls. Many fitness professionals don’t want their clients to backslide during the holiday season, and to help and get more clients, guess what they do? They get on social media and dish out advice on maintaining activity and moderating calories during the holidays.
The fitness advice is well-meaning, formed from personal experience answering clients’ questions about handling the holidays. Some of this advice is based on reality, and some is based on their reality of what it takes to stay ripped.
There was value in this (for me), and I did it until recently.
But now I feel fitness advice around the holidays is useless. If you love opinion articles and the Christmas season, stick around. You are in for a real treat.
Why Fitness Advice Is……
There can be a lot of stress and anxiety around Christmas, and nothing magnifies the haves and have-nots like Christmas. I’m blessed to be in the have group (more blessed than I deserve) and able to afford to spread some Christmas cheer. But there was a time when I didn’t have two sticks to rub together, and buying gifts for loved ones was difficult.
That wasn’t a great feeling.
If I were to get advice from fitness professionals about moderating calories and increasing activity levels when I was poor, I wouldn’t care. Because the focus and anxiety is on the fact I can’t afford Christmas and not on my health and fitness. It’s not like this advice isn’t well-meaning because it is. It’s just the emphasis is on other things.
On the other side, why would you want to add stress around the holiday season about overeating or increasing activity levels when you’re having a good time? Again, it’s not like health and fitness aren’t necessary; the focus is elsewhere.
This isn’t a license to go hog wild during Christmas but a reminder that people less fortunate are stressing about getting something to eat and not overeating.
There was a time when it was the most important thing for my clients to stay on track during the holiday season. I’d devise elaborate plans and bang on Social Media about the importance of staying on track.
Do you know what happened? They ignored my advice and did their own thing anyway.
Did the world end? No, they just put on a few pounds, which meant more job security for me. That’s when it dawned on me that………
Fitness Advice Is Useless Around The Holidays
My experience, although somewhat limited, has shown me many people (and clients) don’t like being told what to do. Who really likes being told what to do?
When your parents told you what to do, did you like it?
Your partner demands something from you in no uncertain terms. Do you like it?
When your kids (if you are a parent) boss you around and tell you what to do, do you enjoy it?
This could keep going on and on, and it would be the same answer every time. No. Not many people enjoy it unless you’re being told what to do and getting paid for it. Even when you’re getting paid, some don’t enjoy it much.
I thought I was being helpful by dishing out fitness advice, but it was a big fat waste of time. Why? Because (generally) people don’t like being told what to do. Then add Christmas and the holiday season to the mix; do you think that made any difference?
Not one bit, in my experience.
Showing people what to do, now that is the jam but a story for a different day.
My only advice to my clients, friends, and family is to enjoy Christmas and count your blessings. For every fitness professional (or anyone) doling out the advice to moderate their calories, there are probably too many people to count going hungry this Christmas.
Think about them, your blessings, and not how many calories you eat. And that’s why I don’t dole out health and fitness advice during the holidays. It’s not entirely useless; there are more critical things to consider.
Wrapping Up
Okay, okay, I’ll step down from the soap box and take a breath. I hope those reading have a blessed Christmas and holiday season and consider the reason for the season. If you can help out someone less fortunate than you, this season is a great time to do it.
Merry Christmas from my family to yours.
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