It's a sad world that we live in when a 21 year old student, dies from taking diet pills.  

Following on from yesterday's post about keeping thing uncomplicated that also means keeping your view of yourself uncomplicated.

I've spoken many times about how the way we see ourselves and talk to ourselves wouldn't be acceptable if somebody else did it.  Yet we continue to put pressure on ourselves and media adds to that pressure to look a certain way.

There is more to life than appearance.  Achieve help people to look better but not by focussing on the appearance.  

More by improving health, appearance is the pleasant side effect.

Please stop looking for quick fixes and magic pills.  Especially if you have children, they understand a lot more than you give them credit for.  They will pick up on your behaviour and anxieties, monkey see = monkey do.

In my early days in the fitness industry I tried some 'fat burners'.  Not for the fat loss effects, I was lean at the time, but for the 'buzz' / increased training intensity that the people selling them promised.

They were right, I could train at a much higher heart rate, although with hindsight that was chemically induced rather than fitness based.  Not a great way to do it; it felt good to push that hard and sweat that much.

I knew something was wrong when I took the pre-training 'stack' and had to work the gym floor as somebody had phoned in sick.  My body still fired up ready for training, I felt a little hyped but the main thing I noticed was that I couldn't type.  My hands were shaking and I started feeling nauseous.

It wasn't a great shift, I felt on edge the whole time.

I stopped taking the 'stackers' from that point on.  A friend continued to take them and ended up having a major stomach issue as a result.

Quick fixes have too many risks involved, as the unfortunate death of Eloise Parry has proven.  

Not all side effects will be as extreme as that.  However, I have had to help lots of people regain their health after following simple detox and shake style diets.

Their hormonal cycles were all over the place as a result.

Keep it simple and eat real food most of the time.  If you need to lose weight, eat a little less of the processed stuff, make gradual changes if you aren't working with an expert.

Add a little more activity in to your life until you feel you can do everything you would like to be able to do without a struggle or pain.