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How do these two things match? Don’t they say fitness is the complete opposite to television? Well, in the last few years I think we have seen a complete shift in what we enjoy watching on television, and media is being used as more of a tool in helping people to become interested in fitness and living a healthy lifestyle.
Now I’m not saying that all TV is good for your health, but there are several shows that are on now that really focus on getting you, the viewer, off the couch, eating right and becoming more active.
Other than late night infomercials for Hip Hop Abs, Zumba and the Ab Coaster I think the show that really paved the way for fitness television is of course, The Biggest Loser (on NBC). For the first time people seemed to be interested in watching people sweat during primetime. Mind you, most of us probably watched it while eating a bowl of chips or ice cream, but the fact that we were still watching was a feat in itself. Was our interest in watching people lose weight going to make us try to lose weight ourselves? I think in this case, for most people, probably not. Unfortunately, the show that had us finally interested in weight loss gave people false hope of being able to obtain their own weight loss goals. I mean, these people were working out with some pretty good trainers, and they were working out for 6-plus hours a day. For the average Joe, this simply wasn’t realistic. I think the only thing we can thank The Biggest Loser for is giving us entertaining television, and opening the door to other shows to be put on network schedules.
Next, we have The Dr. Oz Show. His show inspired many other daytime fitness shows, and I think he can be credited with helping to kill the Soap Opera. I do have to say that The Dr. Oz Show is great. He really has great segments and he finally has given people realistic ways to lose weight and live a full and healthy life. The only problem is that sometimes I really feel like maybe people may be getting overwhelmed with all the advice he is giving. Truthfully, if I took every supplement, and ate every “super food” that he recommended, I would have no time for anything else in my day. I would also be broke. We really can’t fault him though, he is giving us information that should have been shared with us for years, and I applaud him for being so passionate about it.
Because of the two shows I mentioned above, we now have almost an overabundance of health related television available for our viewing pleasure. We have The Doctors, The Revolution, Extreme Makeover Fitness Edition and probably several others that I can’t think of at the moment to mention. The question is now, will we get to a point where there is so much of it on television that we lose interest? And do they really help? I find them inspirational, and watching them usually does make me feel inspired to get my butt moving and make wiser decisions in the kitchen. But what does the average person feel after watching this type of programming? I’ll tell you one thing, I hope this trend is here to stay, because if it helps even one person in our world of obesity, then it is definitely worth tuning in for.
What are your thoughts?
keep healthy!
H
Health and Home Heili 