I want to start this off by saying that I am a member of the health care profession. I am proud that I get the chance to help change people’s lives for the better each day that I go to work.
But there are times when I shake my head in disbelief. I can’t believe the vile that is being spread through our fellow health care professionals, and I am not even talking about the random research that gets passed around social media saying how eating this fruit will burn 12 pounds of body fat, or the social media fitness celebrities showing off their great bodies, (which they have every right to be proud of, but they should not be the go-to educators for the masses).
No, these misguided souls I can forgive, for the most part, what they preach is so ludacris and laughable you can tell it is too good to be true.
But a doctor telling a patient they are fat or they should not exercise and to stick to stretching is incomplete information, at best, and downright harmful at its worst.
If a patient comes to you complaining of knee pain and your response is, “well it’s because you are fat,” that may be true, but how the hell is that doing to help them? They already know they’re overweight, you saying that did not fix the problem; all it will do is make them feel like garbage and could set off triggers that have helped lead to their weight gain.
Instead, you could have been more curious and asked what they have been doing to stay active and may have found out they have been exercising three days a week. When you jump to “you’re fat” without building a human connection or taking the time to care about the person in front of you, it makes that person question if what they are doing is worthwhile.
If you are not going to care for or learn about the people you serve, get out of the health care profession. It is not about you and how educated or smart you are; it is about caring about the person in front of you and helping them.
I get that all these helping professions are businesses and there are time restrictions and it is easier to just say what you know to be the problem and send the patient on their way, leaving them feeling like a bag of fail, while you think you made a difference. But, taking a few extra minutes to acknowledge the person in front of you and understand even a little bit of their circumstances will go a long way. Even realizing that you are not the best equipped to deal with the situation and recommend them to someone who does have the time is better than a quick suggestion that is overly simplified like, don’t lift weights because you will get hurt.
In short, your overly simplistic diagnoses and cutting words are really making it hard for the rest of us professionals to help change lives.
It is never about you. It is about the person in front of you that has come to you for help. At this moment you can choose to treat this person as a wonderful human being or as a checklist and move on to the next.
What are you going to do?
Your Fitness Sherpa
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