You Are Not Broken
You’re not broken.
I’ve noticed this trend of people looking for reasons why they’re broken. You might put more energy into exploring reasons why something won’t work for you than you actually put into the thing itself.
A friend of mine and her boyfriend were trying to get in shape. They’d been pretty inactive for a few years and decided to work on their fitness. Awesome, that’s what I want to hear from people.
After they worked out twice she called me and asked if I knew anything about knee tendinitis or knee tendinopathy, one of the two, I don’t remember exactly.
I said “yeah, why?”
They thought her boyfriend had one of those conditions.
You see, he had run on the treadmill two days in a row. He was wearing old, ratty shoes and he had been sitting on a couch for the better part of the decade then he decided to run 5 miles two days in a row. He slammed his feet onto the hard treadmill with the extra weight crushing his knees.
They thought he was broken because he felt some discomfort while starting something new.
He isn’t broken, he wasn’t broken.
His joints just needed time to adjust to a more active lifestyle. They weren’t used to the pounding of his extra weight on a hard treadmill.
He was out of shape and trying to get back in shape quickly, with no plan and no measure of where he was. A new fitness attempt without a plan is like a ship without a sail. You might be in open waters for a few days but eventually the tide will sweep you onto the rocks. Then you’re easy picking for the vultures that make you quit.
Of course his knees hurt.
That’s what happens when you go from 0-100 in one day. That’s what happens when you forget that you’re not in the same body you were 10 years ago. That’s what happens when you expect past levels of performance from current habits.
They think about 3.1 million people in America follow a gluten free diet.
Globally about 1-6% of the population is actually gluten intolerant, and significantly less people actually have celiac disease. It exists but it’s really rare.
Harvard did a study a few years ago. They found that almost 90% of the people who self reported as gluten intolerant weren’t at all.
All these people were searching for reasons why their metabolism was broken.
They weren’t successful in changing their diets, their bodies or their lives. They had tried all the trendy diets, they had tried to “eat clean” and something clearly didn’t click because they jumped the gun and thought they had a rare metabolic disease.
Things like that shouldn’t happen en masse. There aren’t millions of people who are tired and jump to the conclusion that they have Lyme’s Disease.
The data overwhelmingly shows that they were not broken, and they are not broken.
They wanted something to be wrong with them so they’d have a reason why “everything” they tried didn’t work.
Just like the dude I talked about earlier. You are not broken. You don’t have something wrong with you.
There’s something cultural that makes searching for an excuse a more viable option that working hard and overcoming your own bullshit. It needs to stop now. Without grit and a real desire to change our nation’s health is going to continue to plummet until eventually we’ll all be like Bart Simpsons washing ourselves with a rag on a stick.
“Something’s wrong with me. I’m broken.”
How often have you thought that? I know I have a million times in the past. I wasted time and money trying every supplement under the sun, trying every workout plan I could get my hands on.
What you have are broken habits.
Physical change takes time. And it takes even longer if you don’t focus on developing the basic, foundational habits needed.
All those people who searched for reasons why their metabolism was broken could have saved a lot of time if they focused on their behavior instead of looking for easy answers.
They did not follow a sustainable caloric deficit.
They did not make good food choices.
They did not follow an exercise program.
All three of those things are necessary habits and behaviors if you want to change your body, your diet or your life.
Without them you’re not going to get anywhere. They’re basic but unavoidable. Every one would be better served following those three habits intensely for 90 days before they even think about finding a reason why things don’t work.
If you’ve tried everything but nothing has worked
If no diet works for you
If you can never reach your goals
You’re not broken. If builders spent the first 90 days of a new housing project building a fireplace that would make JoAnna Gaines blush instead of building a foundation the house would collapse before all four walls were up.
Building the foundation isn’t as sexy as adding shiplap to walls, or finding refurbished diner chairs to install in the kitchen.
It’s hard work, it’s dirty and it’s exhausting.
But without it none of the other shit matters. Without it none of the other things could even exist.
My honest plea to you is to recognize that you’re not broken, you’re just distracted, impatient and focusing on the wrong things.
Before you spend another second picking yourself apart or looking for a new product to buy ask yourself some questions.
Are my habits serving my goals? Am I tracking my calories? Am I binging like Henry VIII at a divorce party every weekend? Am I making more good decisions than bad decisions in my diet?
If you can’t honestly say that your habits are spot on then that’s where you need to focus. You’re not broken.
