If it's too Good to be True, it Probably is!

You've heard the saying before - and it's 100% accurate.  Our country seems to be turning to the quick, easy fix for all of our problems.  Perhaps it's a generational thing, perhaps it's a changing American attitude - I'm not quite sure what it is, but it drives me insane, especially when it comes to health and wellness. It seems like every time I turn on the TV, I see ads for health products that promise the same thing: do as little work as possible, but achieve great results - guaranteed!!!  It takes people who are overweight and unhealthy YEARS to get that way - you don't wake up and suddenly weigh 150 lbs more than you did the previous day.  Weight gain is caused by a caloric surplus: every day, in order to gain weight, you have to consume more calories than you burn.  Overeating makes you fat, pure and simple.  Depending on how many calories a day you eat, you would have to eat in a caloric surplus for YEARS to gain 100 additional pounds. My point?  It takes you YEARS to get fat, it's going to take you YEARS to get thin. Any product, aerobic craze workout (ahem, Shake Weight), or colon cleanse (probably #1 on my doo-doo list - no pun intended) that promises results in a matter of weeks or months is a complete SHAM. Sure, if you follow the HCG diet and eat 500 calories a day for 6 months, or do a colon cleanse where you're on a liquid diet and eating well below maintenance calories, you will lose weight.  The math is simple: calories in will be < calories out, even by not going to the gym.  And that's the selling point: these companies prey on people who have no interest in working hard.  The result?  3 months of starvation will enable anyone to lose weight; that weight loss, pure and simple, is not sustainable.  As SOON as you stop following said weird diet, or drinking your calories, what's going to happen?  You will gain weight.  Then you will be disappointed and say that nothing works to help you lose weight.  Sigh. The biggest problem area for Americans is, and always will be, diet.  In my opinion, diet is 80% or MORE of the weight loss/physique game.  You are what you eat – this age-old adage is true.  This is why these bogus products are so successful.  They relay the message that it's ok to eat poorly - their products will work despite an unhealthy diet.  Again, this is unsustainable. If you want to fit into your skinny jeans, you gotta eat skinny food.  This means skipping the Grande Caramel Macchiato with whipped cream in the morning (330 calories, by the way) and subbing it for plain coffee with sugar free caramel syrup.  It means skipping the Big Mac and fries for a 93% lean ground turkey burger and a plain baked potato.  And it means ditching the full fat ice cream for a serving of Greek Yogurt.  Is that as fun?  Not really.  Is it worth it?  Is it sustainable?  Yes.  And, the healthy options taste good, too. This problem will not go away anytime soon, I realize this.  America is going to continue to get fatter and fatter so long as these products continue to exist.  The moral of this story:  eat right, workout HARD, and you'll have the body you want.   No BS, no fairy dust, no magic shoes.  Just sweat and grit.   Beth is an NPC and OCB figure competitor and has been competing for 3 years.  When she’s not rocking the stage in her stiletto heels, she’s either at work as Project Manager at a Pharmaceutical company in Durham, NC or she’s in the gym training clients or teaching spin classes.  In her very minimal free time, Beth likes to sleep, eat, play with her dog, and spend time with her boyfriend and friends (who also like to sleep and eat).