I had an interesting interaction on Facebook yesterday I wanted to share with everyone. No, it has nothing to do with an internet troll trying to one-up me (although it happens a lot). And no, it has nothing to do with ice or buckets or pouring anything over my head (which, I happily did thank you very much).
<—– LOL (and, I smell an abs alert!!!!!!!!)
It has everything to do with a story I shared on my Wall concerning actor Chris Pratt and his sincere interaction with a fan admiring the actor’s physical transformation for a recent movie role.
For those of you who have no idea who Chris Pratt is, he’s probably best known for his role as Andy Dwyer on the television show Parks and Recreation.
In addition he’s also had bit roles in a handful of hit movies such as Moneyball, Zero Dark Thirty, Her, and most recently as the lead (voice) character – Emmet – in The Lego Movie.
Even more recently, you can see him in the movie Guardians of the Galaxy as the lead character and protagonist Peter Quill/Star Lord.
It’s been regarded as a “break out” role for Pratt who, up until now, has never been the main attraction in anything he’s been associated with. Movie geeks like myself, however, have been familiar with his work for some time now and understood that it was only a matter of time before people jumped on the “where did this guy come from?” bandwagon.
Not for nothing: he has several HUGE projects in the pipeline. He’ll be the main character in the upcoming Jurassic Park reboot, Jurassic World, and it’s been rumored that he’ll also be involved with the Knight Rider reboot.
And before I give my hopes up that this will actually happen, can I just say how obsessed I was with Knight Rider when I was kid!?! I may or may not have pretended that my BMX bike was Kitt and I was Michael Knight (sans the chest hair).
Anyways, all of this to say: Chris Pratt is kind of a big deal and don’t be surprised if you start seeing him all over the place.
More germane to the point of this post is that, outside of how awesome Guardians of the Galaxy is (4.5 lightsabers out of 5) and how perfect for the role Chris Pratt was, is the fact that it’s widely known he got into phenomenal shape in order to play the part.
You see, he’s never been associated with muscles or anything to do with fitness, and he’s certainly never been mentioned in the same breath as The Rock, Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), or hell, even Gina Carano.
But it’s hard to look at his transformation and not be impressed.
Like, whoa!
As is the case whenever a Hollywood actor makes such drastic changes to his or her’s body, people want to know how they did it? What’s their secret?
Of course, we can’t forget that these people have many more resources at their finger-tips compared to the average person and it’s their job – and often in their contracts! – to “look the part.” So part of me feels we have to put things into perspective and perform a little “expectation management” when comparing ourselves to actors.
I.e., what works for them in a span of six months won’t necessarily correlate to “bringing sexy back” in the same six month span for us.
Regardless, people are always curious and want to know how said person was able to accomplish their goal(s), in addition to looking up to said actor/actress for inspiration and insight.
And it’s with that I want to share Chris’s answer to a question he received asking him “how did he do it?”
I LOVED his answer.
It’s amazing how his answer makes much more sense (and I suspect will resonate with more people) compared to much of the garbage and hearsay that’s promoted by a lot of quote-on-quote “fitness experts and gurus.”
I wasn’t able to link directly to the video, but you can watch it below. It’s only like three minutes long and worth the time.
HERE
Was I right, or wha I right?
He didn’t fluff anything. He didn’t allude to a magic pill or elixir or special gadget that’s going to lead to better results.
All he said was START.
Doing SOMETHING, along with CONSISTENCY is the key.
Whatever your goal is -whether it’s to shed some weight, lose a few inches, or look like a badass – there’s no need to make things more complicated than they have to be. You need to START and be CONSISTENT.
I had someone make a comment in the original thread on Facebook:
“I agree everybody makes everything so complicated. Just move more and eat less!”
I couldn’t DISAGREE more.
Listen, people aren’t stupid. They know that crushing a bag of Doritos before bed isn’t the wisest (or healthiest) nutritional choice they could be making. They know that regular exercise – any form of exercise – is far more productive than trash talking some 13 year old kid who lives across the country while they attempts to increase their kill rate in Call of Duty.
People KNOW they should move more and eat less. That’s not the problem. The problem is trying to figure what obstacle(s) prevent them from exercising more and eating less in the first place!
If someone’s cupboards are filled with nothing but highly-processed foods – cereal, chips, cookies, etc – and they have easy access to such foods…..it’s going to be really hard to lose weight.
The answer isn’t telling them to “just eat less.” The answer is figuring out a way to get those foods out of their reach in the first place. Educating them on how to make better food choices would come in handy. If the shitty food isn’t there to eat, then we’ve tackled a huge obstacle.
From there we just have to make sure there’s a level of CONSISTENCY!!!!
Likewise, if lack of exercise is the bottleneck. Just telling someone, “dude, you idiot, you just need to move more!” isn’t going to help matters.
Maybe they don’t have easy access to a gym. Showing them some bodyweight routines to follow or directing them towards something they can do at home with minimal equipment would help.
For shits sake, maybe the reason why they don’t go for walks is because they don’t have a decent pair of walking shoes!
Sometimes, you just need to lead the horse to water, ya know!? But of course, as the saying goes, you can’t make it drink the water.
I understand the frustration, though. At a time where people have entire conversations in 140 characters or less and want (and expect) instant gratification, it’s a tough sell to say to someone “you have to be consistent.”
Unfortunately health and fitness doesn’t happen instantly. It just doesn’t.It doesn’t come down to simply telling someone to follow “x” program or “y” supplement.
And what I LOVED about Pratt’s message is that he makes no connotation to that point.
Many of us (fitness professionals included) would be wise to listen to Star Lord.
