Health Grift

I was chatting with my sister-in-law about some health topics. She's a nurse practitioner and I always appreciate her insights. We were chatting about weight and its correlation to health. Traditionally, science has used BMI as an indicator, giving specific "normal" ranges based on age and gender. Almost every trainer and dietician I've spoken with says BMI is a horrible metric because it doesn't account for body composition, fitness levels, genetics, lifestyle, etc. Short answer: just having a BMI in the normal range doesn't make you healthy.

That being said, my doctor recommended I lose some weight, specifically body fat as muscle loss is never seen as a good thing. When I was talking with my sister-in-law, things like body image, fat phobia, misogyny and health industry grift came up. Basically, there's an idea that our culture emphasizes a certain body type as attractive, gets people to become dissatisfied with their current body shape, then prescribes products and plan to look like the ideal. These products and plans rarely work, definitely not in the long term and this cycle of shame keeps circling.

I can 100% agree on businesses creating imaginary problems, then prescribing a solution. It's like that old saying, "Don't ask a tire salesman if you need new tires." I found myself getting angry at these people, preying on people's insecurities. Who are they to try and shame me into giving them money?

My therapy has taught me that anger is a secondary emotion. It always points to something deeper. In this case, I think it's that I'm unhappy with my body composition. I see my belly crease hang over the top of my pants and think, gross. I look at my inability to stay on what I consider a healthy diet and exercise routine and think I lack willpower and am weak. And then I hear that people are profiting off my insecurities, essentially kicking me when I'm down. And I'm not alone.

There's a few things that come up. First, am I a victim of a system that's stacked against me? To some extent, yes. I've gotten sucked into fad diets and gym memberships that I rarely used. Do I need to stay a victim? Absolutely not. Now that I see the game, it's in my power to refuse to play. Do I want to be healthy? 100% Could I use more discipline in my life? I think so, but I would call it being more conscious with my life. I don't want to shy away from doing hard things because they're hard. Part of my growth as a human soul is developing resilience and autonomy. To see myself as a strong individual, not a weak one. Will this involve some work? Yup, and I'm the only one who can do it. But I'm worth it.

The second thing I think about is my attitude towards the health industry. I feel angry towards people schlepping their wares, promising happiness that leads to misery and shame. But I also don't like feeling angry towards anyone. I don't want to dehumanize a soul and call them evil.

Last night, I was in bed and had a thought. We never interact with a person directly. We interact with the narrative we tell ourselves about the person. I can't control people, but I can control the narrative. So I tried a visualization experiment. In therapy, I've done an EMDR exercise where I, after the strobing period, sit quietly and examine my thoughts. I picture them as individuals and then investigate what they look like. I ask the question, what are you trying to tell me? Why are you here? I thought, hey, maybe I can do that with my image of health product providers.

So in my mind I pictured this evil money-grubbing business mogul ripping money out of the hands of poor people. I tried making it as vivid as possible, so I could really feel the anger. Then I asked this character, why are you doing this? My first response was, "Because I'm evil." I then said that's not true because I don't believe anyone is evil. Why are you doing this?

"Because I'm greedy." Why are you greedy? "Because money is power." Do you feel powerless without money? "Yes." Why do you feel powerless without money?

I then had this picture of a little kid whose parents didn't have a lot time to give him attention because they were too busy working. He needed to take care of himself and internalized the idea that maybe with enough money, his parents would be able to love him.

At this realization, my anger subsided a little and I felt compassion for this person. He's stuck in the same mindset as the people buying his products. Thinking that something external will fix the hole inside of him. I thought to myself, he's just like me, trying to make pain go away.

Is this the actual story of the product owners? Maybe. Maybe not. But it calmed down the narrative I was telling myself. Rather than holding the view, "F--- you and your product," I can approach the situation with empathy and curiousity. Asking the question, how can we make the world better so everyone feels like a whole, complete person? Grifters included.