Friday’s Wall Street Journal had a great article on the myth of natural beauty pointing out that celebrities have to work hard to maintain their “natural” beauty. Although we see them in the context of the sit-coms, dramas, movies and other media where they all seem to be acting like normal people, albeit it beautiful normal people, we often lose sight of what these folks have to do to maintain their phenomenal physiques. It can get discouraging for us common folk going about our normal business, fighting our weight, exercising when we can to see these celebs looking like a million bucks seemingly effortlessly. Well, it ain’t so. As I’ve always told my patients, to stay lean and healthy requires work and will power, neither of which come easy. Money quote.
One celebrity glossy recently estimated that, in a single year, the actress Jennifer Aniston spends close to the average woman’s annual salary on trainers and other aspects of a high-level work-out. Former tween-queen Britney Spears told Oprah Winfrey that she used to do between 500 and 1,000 crunches a day to perfect her on-display abs. Actress Kate Hudson told one interviewer that, to lose post-pregnancy “baby weight,” she worked out three hours a day until she lost her 70 pounds: It was so hard that she used to sit on the exercise cycle and cry. Entertainment figures and models are like athletes; it takes a lot of discipline and social support to look like them. Money helps, too.
Well what they do is overkill. If they’d only work out smarter, not longer they’d be far better off.
With all the money they have they could hire a personal chef and fly them to the arctic to get them seal and bear meat!
Hey Fred–
How true, how true.
Cheers–
M
I agree completely with Fred. The combination of an intelligent exercise and nutrition program can produce phenomenal results without spending hours on end in the gym everyday. I get positive comments on my physique on a regular basis and people are amazed when I tell them I only spend around 3 hours a week in the gym! Of course I follow a low(er) carb paleo diet 95% of the time. The people who fall prey for the more-is-better mantra are usually the ones who are avoiding weights, doing cardio religiously, and eating high carb.
Hi jonathon–
Right you are. Keep it up.
Cheers–
MRE