Magic Little Pill

Many years ago, before I was the exercise specialist that I am now, I asked my own personal trainer a question that I seem to hear from others all the time.

“Is there a pill I can take that will help speed this process up?”

And to that my feisty trainer replied,

“Yes. I have a bottle of them at my house and every morning you can jog to my house and I will give you one.”

Now I say the same thing to my clients. There is no pill, there is no creme, there is no berry or herb or special shoe or secret drink.

Sure, there are special pills and drinks that have health benefits. I think acai berries, pomegranates, blueberries, flax seeds, and fish oil are all amazingly healthy, helpful, and good for you. However, this does not mean that if you guzzle down antioxidants all day while sitting in front of the TV, you are going to be the picture of health. They don’t just work by themselves. Man cannot survive on acai alone. Man needs movement!

I have this under-eye creme that I put on in the evenings before I go to bed. It is supposed to take years off, help tighten up wrinkles, depuff the circles, and keep the color smooth and supple. If I chain-smoked all day while sunbathing, it wouldn’t matter if I smothered the stuff on by the barrel—it isn’t going to fix the damage I am doing.

I also have these special shoes called Fit-Flops. They are supposed to work out the muscles in my legs and butt while I walk. Weird, I know—because that’s what all shoes do. It’s not the shoe, it’s the walking. Even if these shoes did perform miracles, it wouldn’t matter if I didn’t walk in them.

I used to have a Thighmaster. Suzanne Somers swore to me in the infomercial that I would look just like her after only four weeks of fifteen minutes per day. If I used that thigh master for fifteen minutes every day, the only thing I would have are really sore inner thighs.

Even the currently popular blood doping isn’t going to work while you sit at home on the couch. I don’t care how much oxygen-rich blood you pump into my veins, I am still not going to beat Michael Phelps in the Olympics or win the tour de France like Lance—and believe me, those boys couldn’t do what they did with recycled oxygen alone.

That’s the thing with all these health remedies. Sure, they might help, they may very well make you stronger, faster, younger, fitter, thinner, bigger, sexier, whatever—but only if you are exercising and eating right while you use them.

So go ahead, use your under-eye creme, drink your acai smoothie, wear your Fit-Flops, watch TV in your abs chair, sprinkle flax seeds on your cereal, and vitamins in your water. Lord knows I will be doing it, right after my workout.

Be Good to your Body, it’s where you Live