I was watching the Smurfs the other day with my boy.
It’s great to forget the real world and watch some kids films.
During the film there was a really funny part.
They were taking the mick out of how ridiculously protective parents can get (myself included).
Anyway, we were watching the film and here was a scene where they were having a kids birthday party.
The dad of the kid whose party it was brought the cake in and he said:
“This cake is organic, dairy free, wheat free, gluten free, antioxidant rich, made locally and the guy who made it has never even seen a peanut.”
I laughed at that one for being so ridiculous.
But it’s true.
Then one of the mums pipes up and says “are these plates BPA free?” (which is a nasty chemical in plastic)
The world has gone mad.
But you already know that.
But to be fair, Kids do seem to suffer from allergies a lot these days, my son included, but that’s not my point.
It did make me think about how I have been in the past.
My personality type is the one which gets “into” things.
I immerse myself in things for years at a time finding out everything I can about a subject.
So if you read any of my organic articles you will know I used to try to be 100% organic.
I will save you the time and bother.
It’s bloody impossible.
You can’t avoid all chemicals and allergens.
Sometimes I would be in the supermarket for two hours or more looking at all the labels and seeing the country of origin of every fruit and vegetable, my wife would go mad, she is usually in and out in 30 mins or less.
I would go to restaurants and not know what to eat.
I would open my mums fridge and see nothing to eat.
I was suffering from paralysis by analysis, and losing weight as my default choice was not knowing what to eat for the best.
Sometimes when you know too much information about a subject you can “over think” things, as I have done many times in the past.
There really is no need.
You just have to get the main things in place and you can forget about the things you can’t control in life.
Like in the film, when the naughty granddad comes in and hands out corn dogs to all the kids (cooked in peanut oil) and the kids and parents all start to scream and go running off to the hospital.
The Grand Dad then says “kids these days, what’s wrong with them”
Stick with me as this relates to you.
I work with over 50 people on a weekly basis and the thing which I seen quite a lot is “paralysis by analysis”.
“would the 5:2 diet be good for me”
“should I do more exercise?”
“should I be taking supplements?”
People are asking me questions about this diet and that diet and this training regime and that, when in reality they need to get the SIMPLE things in place first and do it – consistently.
The first diet anyone needs is the COTC diet. (cut out the crap – If you can’t stick to that there is little point in buying expensive supplements).
If most people could stick to COTC for MOST of the time they wouldn’t need a diet.
If most people trained correctly for the time they are in the gym, instead of wasting time doing useless exercises and talking/texting, they wouldn’t need to go as often and would see better results.
So my advice today is to get the basics right before you start looking further down the rabbit hole, as quite often there is no need to go that deep.
Take it from me I have been down many rabbit holes only to realise it was a waste of time and energy.
Rich “simplicity” Clarke
PS – I have two places in my Over 40 Women’s small group personal training:
Tue & Thurs at 7.40pm in Birchgrove
Starting March 3rd
£75 per month
Nutrition plans provided
Free taster sessions are available in Feb
You can apply here: http://bit.ly/1uJ3kC6
PPS – one to one training is full at the min but I have two people coming to an end in March, so there will be more spaces then if you’re thinking that’s more suitable for you.