I wish I knew who to credit for this image
In the mailbox yesterday, I received the new April issue of Good Housekeeping.Don’t ask me why we get Good Housekeeping. I don’t pay for it and in fact can’t really remember ever signing up for it. (I did get a free subscription to “Outdoors” magazine for something or other which is actually a pretty darn good mag). I never really read the Good Housekeeping and I doubt my wife does either so it often becomes coffee table fodder for the guests we never have.
Anyways, on the cover of this issue is a nice tag line “Bye-Bye Belly Fat! Drop 10 pounds in 10 weeks”. This inspired me to go ahead and open the cover to see what good ol’ Conventional Wisdom was up to these days.
Here is what the “fitness experts” at “Good Housekeeping” (what is wrong with that picture?) put together.
Ready for this?
3 different ways to walk! Yes 3! Different! Ways! To walk!
And it gets better… one way will help you “firm up all over”, another will help you “bust the belly bulge” and the third is to “shed stress”. Each “walk” is accompanied by pictures of some model who looks like she has never worked out doing some awkward and weird isolation exercises.
So what if you want to “firm up all over”, “bust belly fat” AND “shed stress”?Well then I guess you are sol when it comes to these “isolation walks” as I have decided to term them lol.
It is ok though because not all is lost… there is nutrition advice too!The article provide 3 “Smart Snacks” for pre-workout nutrition that “combines energizing carbs with muscle-building protein. None goes over 125 calories – so you can power your walks without putting on pounds”! Lol… I know… this is good… I couldn’t make this stuff up.
Here are the 3 “Smart snacks”
1. “Chocolatey Milk” – they want you to down a cup of Nesquik (yes they actually used the brand) “for your sweet tooth – and stronger bones” lol
2. “Bar Treat” – No SoG Bars or even larabars here. This is a granola bar with at least “3 grams of protein”. They also want you to “wash it down wath an OJ spritzer”! lol…hee hee hee… chuckle chuckle.. HAHAHHAHAHAHHA.
3. “Mexican Cheese Melt” oh this one is fun… half of a whole wheat tortilla and a “reduced-fat cheese stick”. They may like to call this a “mexican cheese melt” but I think “cardboard and wax” might be a more fitting name.
Anyway… Good Housekeeping gets an “F” for Bad Health Advice. Did I expect any different? No, not really but I felt inclined to share this wealth of Conventional Wisdom (trying to hide behind hip and different) with all of you.
March 11th, 2009 - 8:50 am
Laughable. At least this article wasn’t out of Shape or Fitness or another mag that proclaims they know everything about how to ’slim down and tone up’ – although it’s eerily similar to any of their advice too.
Guess Good housekeeping should keep to housekeeping of actual houses, instead of our metaphorical houses (i.e. our bodies).
Was that last part too deep?
-BEE
March 11th, 2009 - 9:20 am
SOG,
LOL. Isolation walks…too funny!
I get Outdoor mag, I really like it. It has some awesome articles.
Don’t go much for the conventional exercise and diet advice in there though.
Marc
March 11th, 2009 - 10:02 am
I also have that magazine at home. My mother gave my wife a subscription. It’s the thought that counts, right? We use it for light bathroom reading. lol
These kinds of articles also make me focus on the absurdity of our society’s obsession with these kinds of articles. Is there anyone in the world at this point who hasn’t read (or tried) these kinds of tips? Hasn’t anyone realized that they don’t seem to work? And yet countless people are shelling out good money to hear the same stuff over and over again. It’s really all the result of the incestuous relationship between “food” manufacturers and the media. It probably isn’t a coincidence that Nesquik was mentioned by name. Nobody makes much money advertising meat, fish, nuts, veggies and fruit so we don’t hear much about it. Ugh.
March 11th, 2009 - 11:59 am
Dude, Good Housekeeping? Really? You? Placating the masses, they are. Good Housekeeping? Really? Don’t make me start calling you Erik.
March 11th, 2009 - 12:02 pm
I guess this just shows you that if you want good fitness advice, you don’t go to good housekeeping. Kind of like how if you want a good steak, you don’t go to a seafood restaurant. It was good for a laugh though … Thanks for that!
- Dave
March 11th, 2009 - 12:12 pm
Bee,
That WAS deep. Just kidding. Agreed.
Marc,
I enjoy a lot of the article on people in outdoors. LIke the article on that base jumper… good stuff.
Ryan,
Good point. i am sure the people buying this issue to help them lose 10 pounds have proabably trie the previous issue of lose 10 pounds that is almost identicle and failed them then.
emergefit,
What can I do? The magazine is kind of like in-laws… it just shows up. lol
Dave,
If I were looking for fitness advice though I probably wouldnt go to a fitness mag either! lol
March 11th, 2009 - 12:13 pm
Ryan –
As tempting as it is to blame this on industrial food companies, I think that’s misleading. The magazines are providing what people want – namely the assurance that they can get the results they’re after without having to make difficult changes or work overly hard.
Most people don’t seem to have the motivation to go beyond what’s easy. It’s understandable (but endlessly frustrating to me) that this appeals to them more than our message. Which is that they’ll need to make some major, and initially quite difficult, changes to their lifestyle.
This is something I struggle with a bit myself. As an example, my blog would probably get a lot more traffic if I rambled about “how to look like an anorexic model”. But so far i find myself saying what I think people need to hear, not what most of them want. I think most magazines are going the opposite direction – telling people what they want to hear. It’s a much easier sell after all.
March 11th, 2009 - 12:33 pm
P.S. I was just on the phone with my mother and learned that it was in fact her that signed us up for good housekeeping.
Chris,
Very easy sell apparently. You would think people would go for the magazines and articles trying to break through boundries… contain revolutionary ideas or breakthroughs… nope… we get simple and stupid. And the sad thing is that most people are ok with that.
March 11th, 2009 - 2:06 pm
One of the biggest jokes about the federally subsidized Milk program is that chocolate binds with calcium. Your body does not absorb the calcium that they are trying to push down ur throat as the reason for drinking milk!!!!
March 11th, 2009 - 3:05 pm
Thanks for the laugh! I just wiped a tear from my eye from laughing so hard!
March 11th, 2009 - 4:46 pm
Chris and Ryan -
I hold publishing companies in as low a regard as big agra, which is to say, not much. We live in a Real Housewives Of Orange County kinda world. Magazines have two jobs and those two jobs are not to inform us, but to sell us more magazines and more products from within those magazines — by any means necessary, by telling us what we want to hear.
March 12th, 2009 - 6:34 am
Great post on some crappy advice from a mainstream magazine! It’s so frustrating to see this worthless advice pouring out all over. And, because it’s in print, it is somehow validated as truth. The average consumer is fed a line of bull and continues to be. Ignorance and laziness seem to be the norm.
March 12th, 2009 - 7:58 am
lm,
That is new to me. Haven’t heard about that. I will have to research it!
Jessica,
Glad you enjoyed it as much as I did
emergefit,
What ever happened to the good old fanishioned tradition of writing for writings sake? Informing people, expressing ideas, using creativity. Now its a business most of the time.
Julie,
Nice corssfit site! I always enjoy looking at a new (to me) crossfit site. In response to your comment I say: If someone is too lazy to work at staying informed then ignorance is an easy byproduct.
March 12th, 2009 - 11:58 am
Chocolate milk has been all the rage in recent Fitness circle. Open up a Muscle and Fitness mag, and it will probably mention how superior low-fat Quik is. Even Craig Ballantyne of Turbulence Training is chugging it down post-workout.
March 12th, 2009 - 2:04 pm
JE,
Ugh!!!! Don’t tell me that. I like Craig! lol
March 17th, 2009 - 5:38 pm
It will never die