I remember reading a magazine article when I was 14 or 15 years old about how Britney Spears did 500 crunches every night.
Whether this was of her own accord or her trainer’s bright idea who knows, but I sure as heck started doing 500 crunches every single night. It took 8 minutes or about 2 Jo-Jo songs to pass the time. And honestly, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
Now, I don’t think crunches are the worst exercise on the planet (see below) and I do think there are more efficient abs exercises for your time, but the moral of the story is that I took a ill-fitting piece of advice and viewed it as GOLD for far longer than I needed to.
This happens a lot in the fitness industry. We hear something and hold on to it for YEARS.
Green tea extract, juice cleanses, only using the elliptical machine, eating zero carbs (unless they’re in that miracle green juice).
It’s great to have a nutrition philosophy, but if a lot of indicting research comes out about your favorite nutrition fad. It’s probably time to let it go.
The good news is that maybe while following that trend you picked up some healthy habits and that was really why it was working. Paying more attention to what you were eating, choosing more fruits and vegetables, cutting back on alcohol, skipping the drive thru.
Keep those habits and focus on the few tired and true most important pieces of advice:
- Eating enough protein
- Not eating too much in general
- Eating fruits and vegetables
- Not eating too much junk food
- Exercising regularly
Great advice…moderation is the key.