"Shouting into the Noise" Insanity, Day 12 of 60

Has there ever been a time in our culture when Health and Nutrition guidance needed so desperately to be listened to?  If you look at the statistics on overweight and obesity, you would have to say, “No.”  As a nation, 60% of us are overweight while 30% of the total is classified as obese.  Child obesity statistics are mortifying.  We are eating more manufactured “food” than ever before.  Nutrient deficient foods, refined sugar, and toxic sweeteners/additives are in 85% of what you see in a grocery store.  Our daily lives, over the age of eighteen, are sedentary with fewer and fewer jobs requiring physical effort to perform.  Medical costs to the “over forty” group of adults are skyrocketing due to chronic illnesses caused by these extremely poor eating and exercise choices.  Heart conditions, cancer, blood issues, edema, acid reflux, sleep apnea…the list is endless.  All of these conditions are avoidable with the right life choices.  That’s a fact.

So if you walked into an Emergency Room in a hospital loaded with these people…the overweight, the chronically ill, the overmedicated…how many do you think would hear you when you said, “If you make a few changes, eat right and exercise, I can show you how to avoid all of this.  I even have a few items that are proven to help you, and I can show you how to use them.”  How many?  Few?  I bet a couple would listen.  How many would listen if you said it in a medical office?  Fewer.  How many if you said it at a grocery store or mall?  None?

Why is that?  How could it be that a horse dying of thirst, when a bucket of water is put under them, would refuse to drink?  The main way is that the horse doesn’t know it’s dying.

With people, it’s a little bit different.  People are a lot more complex.  They refuse to drink because they are hoping that the lifestyle they have been living, the one they are very used to and think is bringing them pleasure, can somehow continue without consequence.  It’s maddening…believe me, I know it.

It’s strange how even the medical issues these people are facing or enduring are not enough to make them decide to change.  The not so funny part is that I get it.  I took two ambulance rides that were caused by my physical condition and job stress.  The job stress was bad but the real condition was that I was so physically broken that my body couldn’t handle the effects of that stress.  Many think that stress is psychological but in reality, the physical effects of stress are far worse.  The over stimulation of cortisol and the other metabolic changes that happen in the body due to stress can kill you.  I know that.  But that’s not what made me change.

For me, it was an ‘aha’ moment when I was simply turning a screw on a July day and I was sweating a puddle under my face.  I am dead serious.  That snapped me.  That’s the day I decided I was changing and not going back.

So here we stand with all this information and we wonder why there is so much resistance to the message.

I have spent the last ten years selling bank products on the internet.  Getting someone to open a checking or savings account online is very difficult.  To be successful, you have to be patient and understand why people decide to buy things.  “Buy” means that they decide they want to invest time and/or money in a product or service.

The first three things you need to be successful are you need to have expertise, honesty, and likability.  Expertise has to be complemented with credibility.  People have to believe that you actually believe the message.  You can’t fake that.  Honesty and likeability are things we all have come to appreciate and try to aspire to, but you also need to complement those two things with sincerity.  Absent sincerity, looking honest and likeable is hollow and sniffed out very quickly.

You would think that once you get over this hurdle that your job is done.  Oh no.  Not at all.  That just takes care of your side of the selling equation.  Selling any concept, service or product requires the other person to do something too.  The next question is, “What would this product have to do for them to inspire them to change?”  That’s really the issue here.  Change.  We live today in a culture where we have so much that there are very few products that are needed that we don’t already own.  So the trick is getting people with too much and very busy lives to see your product as so essential that they need to have it.

So, if your product is health and fitness, what would trigger someone to decide to embrace the message?

Does the service fulfill a basic need?  Health and fitness?  Oh , yes…it does.  Do THEY think it’s needed?  Maybe not.  They may think they are healthy enough and have moved on to satisfying other needs in their life.

Does the service offer a benefit of convenience?  Nothing is more appreciated than a solution to something that is fast and effective.  Ever wonder why more diet pills are sold than exercise DVD’s?  Perceived convenience.

There are many other reasons that people buy things…scarcity, replacing something they already have that either broke or requires a significant upgrade, low price, great value, fills an emotional void.  But with Health and Fitness…it is obvious.  THEY NEED IT.

So what need is it fulfilling?  Is it a basic need?  Maybe they have had a health crisis.  Maybe they have been warned that things are so bad that a health crisis is imminent.  So maybe it would fulfill a basic safety need.  Is their health affecting their relationships?  Better health could improve their need for love and affinity.  Do they want desperately to be held in regard by others (an esteem need) ?  The closer the need is to the basic needs, the more they are likely to be receptive.

Regardless, I have been pushing a pro-health message for four years now.  I have been living it, so I have some credibility.  After that, people will only move on becoming more fit when THEY are ready.  Don’t get frustrated and just keep pushing the message.  It is desperately needed.

THE WORKOUT:

Last night’s workout was great.  I finally figured out why my thighs were getting ripped up in the routines.  I was not squatting properly.  My knees were out over my toes and, when I dropped my butt into the squat, I was bending my knees at an angle less than 90 degrees, which is really tight.  My poor form was actually killing my legs.  I made and adjustment last night and it was great.

Same result for tonight’s workout.  Better form and all went really well.  I am still sweating like crazy but my endurance is building.  One observation though…and this is how I know that I am in week two…some observations on the other participants.

I am jogging my butt off in the Pure Cardio.  WHAT are some of the people in the back doing?  Their feet aren’t even leaving the floor!!  They are ‘flashdancing’ as the legs barely move and the arms pump. It’s all I can do to not hum ‘Maniac.’  Also, there is a guy that gets caught huffing and puffing with a painful look on his face and when the camera cuts to him, he turns on the gas.  The surprise look makes me laugh every time.

Okay, signing off.  AbRipper X in the AM.  KEEP IT GOING!!