Tag Archives: rant

More than what meets the eye…

At this point in the digital age, basically all niche social media outlets have become picture books of our lives. The words are gone, no more anonymous blog posts or forum threads, we let photos tell our stories…which honestly, I absolutely prefer. There’s a reason I can’t keep a Facebook account active for longer than a month as of late, people take way too much of an advantage of having a 500+ audience to post an irrelevant ‘status’ to. Coming from a business perspective though, especially in the fitness and health industry, there really couldn’t be a more handy tool than having the freedom to post a magazine of your product (aka body) for all to see and be inspired by. But where is the line between self promotion and relying solely on your appearance for credibility?

The sexualization of fitness is never going away, I’m sorry (no I’m not) but if you honestly think that you have 10K or more followers on Instagram because of your ‘motivating’ attitude and not because of the provocative thoughts your sweaty pumped up muscles inspire in your pictures and videos, you are lying to yourself. EVEN if you have the most honest intentions in the world, people are going to objectify you and fantasize about way more than picking your brain over a cup of coffee on the benefits of fasted cardio. I am not exempt from this phenomenon either, I recently posted a photo of myself in a bikini and it has the most likes out of any photo on my page, literally the least important thing I have probably ever posted on my account received the absolute most attention…honestly, it’s kind of disheartening to me. I work extremely hard to find and promote valuable information to share on social media, the REAL stuff, the stuff that could change the future of our planet and children’s lives if enough people knew about and acted on it. But nobody gives a shit about that unless it’s attached to a picture of some #squatspo ass or ‘hot guy with a beard’ pic. When did a six pack, tattoos or a cool mustache become more interesting than minimizing greenhouse gas emissions? Hahaha, what the hell am I even saying? That sentence even sounds ludicrous to me and I genuinely feel it’s an injustice. Maybe if more of these types of folks used their ‘powers’ for good I’d have a little less to rant about…but if you don’t have any depth or character behind that smoking body or sweet beard, what is your worth, truly? What is your message? What do you stand for? If you have that kind of platform to reach TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE, 10,000! USE IT FOR SOMETHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR BODY. That’s all I’m saying. There is absolutely nothing wrong with working your ass off to reach and maintain a desirable appearance, and it’s so easy to be admired for that because it’s instant, people see you, they automatically think; motivated, strong, dedicated etc…which are all respectable things to be known for, but what if you poured 1/10th of the power of those adjectives into the Big Brothers Big Sister’s program? Or did a tour with Green Peace? Maybe you just start volunteering on weekends for a non-profit…think of the impact you could make. It’s incredible and immeasurable who or what you could inspire.

I firmly believe in taking full advantage of social media, on all platforms. But promote something meaningful at least. Be more than a pretty face, be a revolutionary for your own personal passions.

“I can’t, I have to go to the gym…”

Hi, my name is Kaitlin and I have an addictive personality….

Now this in no way means that I am one of those people everyone wants to be around and can’t get enough of, it means that when I find something I like, I do it to the full extent of which it can be done until it cannot be done anymore.

For example, about 5 years ago I exchanged drugs and alcohol for fitness, committed to it whole heartedly, wound up doing some competitive bodybuilding shows, got way too lean too fast and absolutely destroyed my metabolism…which I suppose I am somewhat grateful for because it opened my mind up to a whole new way of looking at nutrition and how to approach clients when it came to fat loss, BUT, none the less it was a mistake that I still pay for.

Fitness is still a part of my day, every single day. I feel lazy and for lack of a better term, ‘fat’ when I don’t get my blood pumping in one way or another on a daily basis. Similar to when I was a dead beat substance abuser and didn’t get some sort of fix that day, but instead of feeling out of shape and lazy, I felt anxious and irritable. And now that I’ve typed that I see that basically nothing has changed. Subconsciously my mood is relatively shittier when I haven’t gotten a work out in during the day.

I am 100% positive that if you are in the least bit active, you can relate to that. You could be at sub 10% BF and still feel like a walrus if you don’t hit the gym as planned. (That  coming from my personal experience …) It’s an absolute addiction, much better than some others you could pick up, but an addiction none the less. I mean, by now anyone who’s watched Legally Blonde knows that exercise induces the release of endorphins and ‘endorphins make you happy’, thanks Elle. So it only makes sense that we are inherently pissed off somewhat when we don’t get our daily fix…or does it?

Fitness is not about a daily caloric intake, or the number of sets you do per week calculated down to a perfect science in correlation to your body type, BMI or resting heart rate. Its about CONSISTENCY. If you wake up on ‘chest day’ but your legs are feeling supercharged and you want to try and max out your squat, fucking do it. NO ONE IS IN CONTROL BUT YOU. No one at the gym knows what your work out schedule is, what shirt you wore the day before, or let alone cares, so go after it. Sure, there’s a LOT of trainers out there preaching the importance of a 5 day split or specific rep schemes to get strong/lean/bigger/taller/faster/smarter, and there is absolutely some methodology that is bulletproof (such as Wendler’s 5/3/1 program) but you know what? If you go to the gym 3-6x a week, bust your ass working on whatever you decide to do that day, you’re going to get fitter. If you want bigger biceps, focus on biceps, not just one day a week, load them suckers up. If you want to deadlift the world, DO SOME DEADLIFTS. Keep it simple, perform the movements that support your current goals. Get your ass off the bosu ball if you only care about doing 50 strict pull ups. There is something to be said about being well rounded, and I guess if you enjoy trying to balance in a one handed plank while doing cable curls with your teeth to isolate your triceps and singing the ABCs backwards, thats your bag and I’m not here to judge anyone. But, no one is saying you HAVE to do that to improve. It’s amazing what people come up with to ‘supplement’ their current goals…the only supplementary exercise I would add to ANY program, is incline sprints. But that’s another post…

It’s way too easy to get caught up in this crazy regime that doesn’t allow you to think for yourself or actually feel your body. We get so set on our weekly ‘routine’ that it almost limits us. And for me, when I have a set work out schedule, I enjoy the structure for a while, but it gets monotonous, structure isn’t bad for newbies who aren’t really gym savvy yet, but for the seasoned vets out there, I know it took a ton of stress out of my life when I stopped worrying about how/when I could get to the gym to do my premeditated work out, and started to just do what I knew I could that day. Life is unpredictable man, and you have to love and accept what gets thrown at you daily, not resent yourself or your job or your friends for throwing a fork into your machine of a gym life. Relax, enjoy the moment you’re in, friends are more important than abs, and a family dinner is more important than a shoulder pump. No ones going to care what you looked like at 27 if you are an amazing husband/wife, mother/father or human at 45, take it as it comes.

The moral of the story is, there’s no long term magic formula, you just have to find something sustainable and something you ENJOY. If you don’t like what you’re doing for exercise, stop immediately. Don’t waste your time, if you hate the gym, try hiking. If you despise running, try Jujitsu. Don’t force yourself into anything because you read in Meat Head News that you HAVE to do such and such 3x per week to get hot in a bathing suit. Move your body and do what you love. It’s that simple.

Finally, a blog…

It’s been a really long time since I wrote a blog post. I tried to simplify my website by keeping it very straight forward and informational…but all that led to was me ranting my views and opinions in extremely long picture captions. Obviously, I’ve got a lot to say and I needed an outlet.

I’ll be posting all of my views on current nutrition and diet trends here, the good, the bad, the ignorant…as well as some tasty plant based recipes. I’ll try and keep all things credible and reference places you can do some self research. So I hope you subscribe and I’ll keep you updated on social media when I feel like what I have to say is semi important. Other than that you might find some excessive shit talking, posts about nail polish, and likely my dogs. Yeah, probably mostly my dogs…

xxo
Kait