On any given day when I wake up and turn on my laptop to check my email, what I see on my screen can run the gamut:

Ranging from emails by people asking me any number of fitness and health questions; editors reaching out wondering 1) if I’d be interested in contributing to their magazine/website, or what’s usually the case 2) asking whether or not I’m going to make their deadline (haven’t missed one yet); distance coaching clients writing to say how much of an a-hole I am for programming eight sets of squats on a Monday; annoying SEO representatives asking me if I’m interested in their services; and, of course, emails from the even more annoying Saudi Princes willing to hand over a small fortune purely out of the kindness of their heart……

…….if I’m willing to provide my credit card number.

And, admittedly, I also get a fair share of people who contact me asking me to pimp their new ebook or product (even though I’ve never heard of them or know them for a hole in the wall).

Needless to say I get a lot of mail that goes directly into my spam folder or I just delete altogether. And then I move on with my life.

Last week I received an email through my website that, upon initial viewing, felt a little suspect:

Hi Tony Gentilcore – I hope your 2013 is off to a great start!

We start this year fortunate enough to have received VC funding to start up a non-profit nutrition educational organization we’re calling Slim is Simple. SIS is working to provide compelling multimedia resources—free of charge—that the educational and health communities can leverage to help share the simple science you and I know can help so many people live so much better. We’re working to get this “curriculum” into schools, churches, and etc.

Wanted to give you a quick sneak peak of our first full-length animated educational piece at (see below) with the hopes that we can collaborate on giving this non-profit educational effort the legs it needs to make a difference in the mainstream. The official launch of SIS is Tuesday.

I’m not going to lie – once I read that initial paragraph the theme music from Jaws was running on repeat in my head.

Da-DUM.  Da-DUM. Da-DUM…….

I had never heard of Jonathan Bailor, much less read anything he’s written. But I saw in his byline that he has a book titled The Calorie Myth coming out through Harper Collins in 2014, and too, I’d like to think that I’m not that much of a jerk where I can’t give a few minutes of my time to check out a video.

I mean, I’m all about simplifying things – especially when it comes to nutrition. Given most people equate nutrition to rocket science, or quantum physics, or, if you’re me circa 1995, trying to unclasp your first bra (how the hell does this thing work!!!!!), anything that provides information which helps people sift through the BS and make things easier is cool in my book.

So, long story short I was intrigued and took the bait.

And you know what:  it was really, really good. It’s twelve minutes that’s definitely worth your time.

Slim is Simple

I know there will be some detractors out there who will nitpick a few things and most likely provide some long-winded diatribe on why Jonathan’s approach contains faulty logic, and that’s cool – you can go about hating your life.  And no one will probably listen to you anyways.

I can nitpick as well, but all told, I feel the overall message is awesome, and feel it’s something that’s going to be very beneficial to the general public and (hopefully) sway the tide towards a more sensible weight control approach.

I don’t know about you, but I’m so tired of people reading US Magazine, thinking that starving themselves – and being afraid of eating an apple because it contains carbs (but not think twice about crushing a double latte) – and then gaining their nutritional advice from Paris Hilton is a smart approach.

Likewise, I don’t necessarily feel that people have to be “slim” in order to be healthy or be comfortable with their bodies (not that that was what Jonathan was insinuating in the first place).  But I do feel we’ve done an awesome job of overcomplicating things, and many people out there have gotten to the point where they have no idea what to eat!  Which is absurd.