I was so happy to read the Sunday article in the New York Times from Jessica Kroll regarding the wellness industry!  As an active participant in the wellness industry for over 20 years, I cannot emphasize enough how important this article is.  There is a lot of BS in the industry and it is all a clever way of marketing, mainly targeting women.

We know that the fashion, beauty, and diet industry is plagued with marketing schemes that end up making modern women feel frumpy, ugly, and not good enough…but if you buy this shoe, or this skin product, these feelings will go away!  (If you don’t believe that this affects you, try unplugging from television, radio, social media, magazines, billboards, etc. for one week and see if you spend any time thinking about products you “should” buy).  The wellness industry, on the other hand, was supposed to be our warrior, our champion, our way of improving our health and self-esteem in a positive manner.  This industry was supposed to care about us and want what is best for us, with less emphasis on us buying even more products.

And what happened?

It is the same story all over again.  I was a child of the 80’s and I remember baby-sitters or my friends’ moms on the Slimfast diet, cabbage soup diet, Atkins diet, and sugar-free processed everything!  We have simply exchanged the traditional diet industry for one that calls itself wellness, but really has us spending even more money on unnecessary products and more time feeling guilty.

I long for the day when I can have coffee, lunch, or a conversation with a friend where they don’t tell me what cleanse they are on or what food they are restricting.  I long for the day when my fellow yoga teachers don’t make a comment about my body or how, if I just eliminate something out of my diet I will magically be able to do a pose successfully. Don’t get me wrong, I love to talk about food, but prefer to focus on eating it and about the local chef’s latest concoction rather than about NOT eating it.  I love talking about yoga, but I don’t want these conversations to be an open forum for judgement of the habits of others.

In 2011, I had my first wellness coaching session.  After a few months, I felt like a whole new person.  Why?  Because this wonderful person freed me from the ridiculous expectations I was setting based on the so-called “wellness” industry.  Ironically, after this I became less-restrictive and more open to explore, rather than sticking to the tried-and-true wellness “rules”.  She helped me recognize my own wisdom in what was best for me.  This motivated me to complete a certificate program from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition so that I could learn more.  A small part of me was worried if I let go of the reins, I would gain a lot of weight.  In reality, my weight has changed very little in the past 8 years.  But I can tell you I spend significantly less time worrying about it.  Do you know how much time I gained back by listening to myself and ignoring the BS?  Do you know how much more life I gained back?

Friends, read this New York Times article.  Maybe this can help you learn to live a little more and hate on yourself a little less.  As always, comments are welcome.