Defining Fitness-An Opinion Based Blog on The L.A Fitness Expo

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love to exercise, so when the Los Angeles Fitness Expo was slated to be in town this past weekend, it was no surprise that I was going to buy myself a ticket to go. I had never been to this event before, so I was not really sure what to expect. I knew there would be a lot of the latest supplements, some body builders, some new exercise classes and competitions. I envisioned there would be some booths with the latest in nutrition and trendy food items as well. Since we all know food and exercise go hand in hand, right?

What I did not expect, and forgive me to those I might offend, was pretty much walking onto the set of the West Coast Jersey Shore when I stepped into that Fitness Expo auditorium. I saw fit people, but not just fit people. Huge, vascular men, looking more bulky than fit, and most of them looked pissed off. The women, many similarly bulky, most of who were covered in that orange spray tan lotion. Listen, I like a good tan like the next person, but unless you are competing, the lotion looks a little tacky to hang out in at an expo. Just saying. Many of the women also looked like they were not happy. I wonder why…were they hungry? Perhaps those liquid egg white shakes being passed out at one of the front booths weren’t quite cutting it for calorie content.

Ok, this is a bit of an exaggeration, but is this fitness?

I wandered around the 300+ booths to find that around 85% of them were toting the latest and greatest in protein supplements, protein bars, protein cookies, liquid egg whites, low carb breads, and only around 15% have natural food products or real food based vitamins, or anything I would really want to consume. Okay, this is great. I respect the bodybuilding world, and have friends who are in it. I also recognize that this expo is put on by bodybuilding.com, But here is my question. Is this what is considered fitness? Do you have to ingest a bunch of gimmicky protein based food items and extra supplements to have a fit body?  

After reading through the manual of the different events for the day, I was excited to find that in one of the areas, a natural foods chef from the Discovery Channel was going to do a cooking demo on healthy seasonal food. Yay! I quickly took a seat and was pleased by a 45 minute cooking demonstration using real food and quality ingredients-olive oil, lemons, apples, fennel, walnuts, even REAL Parmesan Reggiano was added to the chef’s fresh seasonal salad recipe. Before he finished, the chef, who’s name is Nathan Lyon, said something that stuck with me, and I have heard other people in my field say it before. “Real food is our greatest medicine, and the less processed we eat, the better we will feel.”

Chef Nathan looks pretty happy and healthy to me, minus extra protein supplements.

As I was sitting there listening to those words, I wished his microphone was loud enough for the ENTIRE auditorium to hear. I know in my past, when I worked nights and did not have time to cook or just didn’t feel like it, I would buy boxes of protein bars and shake mixes in bulk and eat them fairly often. For me, the un-natural stuff did not feel good in my body. I could feel those bars sitting in my stomach like a brick, waiting to dissolve. The shakes were okay, but usually drinking them, I would be hungry again in about an hour, or they just didn’t taste good and I wasn’t satisfied the way I would be with REAL FOOD. I know I am not the only one. A friend of mine, who is a personal trainer, used to complain to me about having stomach pains regularly, being constipated, etc…when we evaluated his diet, it turned out he was eating protein bars in bulk…and when he eliminated them from his diet, after a few weeks, he was not having stomach pains and constipation. Hmmmm…interesting. 

Listen, I get it. For some people, the supplements work great. I am not trying to completely tear down the supplement world, I am not against all of it. I just don't think it DEFINES FITNESS. Bodybuilding is a lifestyle and I know people who live it and love it. Maybe there was a point in my life where drinking shakes and eating bars worked for me. But now, after 5+ years of nutrition education, when I think of fitness, this is not what I think of. Knowing what I know, I think of fit people, maybe a little smaller than what I saw at this expo, maybe not so orange. Perhaps tanned from the sun, or even a little tanning bed glow, but not orange lotion. Maybe not 3 percent body fat, but lean and HAPPY. People cooking and eating real food. That is what I equate fitness with now. 

Another thing that bothered me with this expo was that, due to obvious lack of real food in the actual expo, people went to the cafeteria to eat for real meals. It was quite ironic for me to go in there to get some food with my girlfriend and find some of the biggest bodybuilders of the day sitting down to meals of a slice of pizza, a bag of Doritos AND a bacon cheeseburger. Yes, this actually happened right across from where my girlfriend and I were sitting. Ok, I get the cheat meal thing, but really? Like that? At a fitness expo?

I did see a few booths where whole grains that are fairly unknown to most of the public, like freekeh, were being cooked, and nutrition bars that were high in fibers and nut/dried fruit based were being handed out, but there were 300 exhibitors and maybe 30 of them were booths with real food products. I realize this is not the Natural Foods Expo, but I hate to think that people are going to eternally associate all things fitness solely with being a jacked body builder on protein supplements. There are definitely other ways you can be fit without being a part of that scene.