Newton was Wrong

Newton’s first law: Every object continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless compelled to change that state by external forces acted upon it.

That may look like a bold statement from a personal trainer in the 21^st century, and maybe Newton meant to have excluded humans from that statement. All things considering, I suggest a modification applicable to humans:

Karin’s first law: Every human continues in its state of rest, unless compelled to change that state by internal forces acted upon him/her.

As a personal trainer, people come to me to get guidance for exercise after they have already made up their minds that they want to exercise. Picking up that phone and crossing the threshold to my studio are often the biggest steps a person will make. All following steps are small in comparison.

We in the fitness industry are often lamenting that we are not reaching out enough to the sedentary population. The results of lack of exercise and bad eating habits are in plain sight. I do not know of anybody who is not aware that this is detrimental to your health.

So: what can we do?

Maybe we should consider what we should not do: stigmatize those whose appearance makes it obvious that they have made some unfortunate choices.  Let’s declare a peace treaty on the ‘War on Obesity’ because they are not our enemies.

There is no external force that can make somebody do anything. Only internal motivation can accomplish that. And such internal motivation can grow much easier on a soil of understanding and compassion.