Remember Susan Powter? She was the blond, spiked hair, ball of energy, enthusiastically jumping around on the TV stage, promoting her fitness program on late night TV, and yelling: “Stop the Insanity!” You could get her program for only four easy payments of $19.95.
Her message was simple. EAT, BREATHE, MOVE. She said her message was “nothing new, just repeating what others have said”. She promoted a very low fat eating program which she said took her from 260 pounds to the slim, trim, athletic person you saw on the TV screen, in less than a year, using her program of low fat eating, focused breathing and vigorous exercise.
She was right, of course. There was nothing new there. The Stoics promoted it in ancient times. Fitness gurus like Bernarr MacFadden, Paul Bragg, Jack LaLanne, and a host of modern gurus, promoted it from the beginning of the 20th century until the present day.
Most of the same health and fitness promoters include ATTITUDE or MINDSET as part of any overall Health and Wellness program. Mind and body do go together. Some add a Spiritual component.
We have all grown up with the TV infomercials and “As Seen on TV gimmicks”. There have been the “bust developer”, the “Ab Roller” (Note: the best of the TV products), the very successful “P90X” fitness program, all sold successfully on TV. Some of them really worked, some didn’t. Most were fads.
But here’s the thing — it’s true: EAT, BREATHE and MOVE! If we do, we’ll stay lean, trim and probably healthy, or we’ll lose weight, become lean and trim, and FEEL a whole lot better. It’s not the fad diet or exercise program that works. It’s YOU! Only you can make it happen. You are the one who has to EAT, BREATHE and MOVE. You don’t need the fad diets and exercise gimmicks.
There will always be controversy about what form of exercise is best, what breathing patterns are best, and most common, what is the best eating program. Susan Powter promoted a very low fat diet. So do Pritikin and Dean Ornish, two of the more long lasting styles. Today’s most recent fad diet trend is the KETOGENIC diet (“KETO”) which says to eat a high protein, high fat and low carbohydrate diet, and burn fat instead of carbs (glucose) for energy — very similar to the old (and controversial) Atkins Diet Program. What’s best? Who knows? Try them and see what works long term for you.
But Susan Powter, Paul Bragg, Bernarr Macfadden and Jack LaLanne were all correct when they said it all boils down to EAT, BREATHE, MOVE. Once you accept that premise, you are on your way to discovering which method of Eating, breathing and moving works best for you. Remember, it’s not the program that gives you Health, Fitness and Personal Energy, It’s YOU taking action to do it.
Thank you for reading.