I've been there and tried it myself (remember my 395 days of exercise that got me nowhere but chronically fatigued). Exercise and food have the potential to cause huge stress upon the body. When they body is stressed is it any wonder we fail to become fitter, leaner, healthier. How many aerobics instructors have you seen that look like you want to???
Poliquin coined the phrase "chunky aerobics instructor syndrome" (CAIS) in which the increased cortisol from the stress of poor diet (they typically eat processed carbs and use coffee to give them a boost to carry on teaching) and extreme, excessive cardiovascular exercise causes the breakdown of tissue (catabolic), which causes inflammation and suppresses various systems within the body.
"Practicing what you preach" is what every health professional should live by, but if people in the health care industry cannot show their patients and clients the proper/ideal way to live via healthy lifestyles (I see PT's chugging sports drinks and protein shakes, nurses smoking and obese dieticians) they certainly need to take a reality check. They influence everyone around them negatively and then wonder why people fail to follow their guidance.
I'm hyper passionate about health and struggle to sit by while people ignore the very foundations of health in favor of medicating patients. From my early studies I knew that our national health service shows more interest in maintaining a state of constant ill health rather than fixing it. From people on statins through to diabetics who receive no real advice about how food is effecting their health. I decided to do something about it, I considered medical school so I could gain the highest qualification and respect whilst continuing to educate people about the real causes of disease. Pretty quickly I realized the pharmaceutical industry has health all sew up to make profit the number one goal and knew that my radical views that went against the grain would not sit well with academic leaders.
I then chose the path of rehabilitation, maybe then I could gain a respected qualification (no idea why as I've yet to meet anyone with a good word to say about their physio) and educate my patients about the real causes of their pains/ill-health. As we all know the NHS is out of this world when it comes to emergency and traumatic accidents, but when it comes to health, such as rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, diabetes etc not a word gets mentioned about the food you shovel into your mouth. On the rehabilitation side, not once in my year of study did anyone perform any proper orthopedic assessment to assess the true cause of structural pain. As it became clear, the text books suggested for further study were all about "managing" conditions rather than treating them or educating the patient how to alter the root cause. Health is rarely on the agenda when it comes to the medical model. They focus on disease with the sole intention of maximizing profit for the pharmaceutical bigwigs.
So I constantly fail to comply with being brainwashed into becoming a corporate puppet that keeps selling the story that your health cannot be dictated by the choices you make. As most of you know I don't suffer fools gladly and will tell the truth about any subject. I've built my reputation on "honest nutrition" as I give you all the facts about the political favor used to build government health recommendations. If you want to know what's really causing your pain/ill-health get in touch.