I Detest Wellness Influencers

I detest fitness and wellness influencers. Well, I despise all influencers. Especially if they introduce themselves as an influencer. It makes me want to introduce myself as a boxer.

They’re often poorly educated and without a good grasp of science, biology, or medicine. You know what saying they love that’s incredibly offensive and ableist?

It’s a saying that, on its face, seems sound and accurate but really smacks of condescension and judgment.

It feeds into the moral judgment shared by many that if you’re ill or disabled or have a chronic illness, you brought it on yourself. It’s karma. You did something to deserve your health challenges. You asked for it. (Because I was wearing workout leggings?)

If you don’t make time for your wellness, you’ll be forced to make time for your illness.

Please enjoy the following photographic evidence going back nearly 2 decades, documenting how I never made time for my wellness nor lived a healthy, active lifestyle. Sadly, I now have to make time for my illness as I never did anything to safeguard my health.

I share these only because I spent a LOT of time prioritizing health and wellness. I was even a personal trainer at one point, not that getting that certification is hard.

Ultimately, it didn’t matter how big of a health nut I was.

Why is it if I needed a cane because I had a knee replacement, it would be received better than when I need a cane because of a chronic illness?

I realized that awhile ago for myself, that if I needed a mobility aid while I healed from a leg injury received during a car accident, a sport, or a necessary surgery, I’d be okay with that. I had a really hard time accepting that sometimes I need a cane because my own immune system had attacked and destroyed vital parts of my brain and spinal cord. It was difficult to accept that unlike a torn ACL, the sometimes necessary cane was a permanent feature. It wasn’t just until I recovered from a surgery or a fracture, it was forever.

I went through a very long phase of hating my new, everlasting disabilities that I won’t recover from and I’m on the other side now. I’m sure I’ll pop back in every now and then, but I think I’m through the worst of it.

I think victim blaming is just a protection mechanism that every human goes through. We tell ourselves that we’ll never be them. I’ll never be in an abusive relationship because I have self respect and choose good partners. Thank goodness I’ll never be sexually assaulted because I don’t wear short skirts, drink at a bar, then walk home alone in the dark. I’ll never be homeless because I pay my bills.

I’ll never become sick or disabled because I take care of my health.

It makes us all feel safer. Because we make better choices, we’re protected from calamity. That’s utterly false. Yes, make good choices. Obviously. Those good choices might prolong your health and physical ability! My neurologist thinks, based on my MRI, that I should have been visibly disabled years ago except I was working my ass off to protect my health well into my old age.

Hahahahaha didn’t even make it to 40.

I think life’s pretty random. There’s no sky daddy orchestrating our existence, bad things happen to good people, illness strikes healthy and fit people, bad guys get ahead, life changes in an instant, and then eventually we die. You might always do your best. Heck, maybe you’re even perfect. If the right boxes are checked, even perfection won’t stop biology.

So if you’re someone who parrots this phrase even with the best of intentions, please stop it. Sometimes, someone can be a total health nut and develop a chronic illness. Marathoners drop dead of heart attacks despite being lean and doing a lot of cardio. There are registered dietitians who have developed cancer. Some babies come out of the womb with heart defects, cancer, or deformities. Should they have spent the last two trimesters in utero prioritizing their wellness? If you have a deep seated, subconscious belief that the ill or disabled deserve their fate in some way, I’d love to hear your theory about what grievous sin a newborn with cancer committed to earn such a karmic punishment. Explain it to me like I’m five.

If you’re healthy and able-bodied, just be grateful and enjoy it while it lasts. Most people aren’t lucky enough to pass peacefully in their sleep after an entire lifetime of good health and physical acuity.

Yes, taking care of your health is important. But for some they can work out until the cows come home, eat the healthiest diet possible, never smoke, get 8 solid hours of deep sleep every day, get at least 8 glasses of water, avoid alcohol etc. and it won’t always prevent disease. Chronic or disabling illnesses are often the result of a perfect storm. If the boxes of genetics, environment, childhood disease exposure (like the Epstein-Barr virus), unavoidable stress-

…if you’re one of those toxic positivity weirdos that thinks you can avoid all stress, I don’t have enough crayons left in the box to explain it to you. But I digress…

-and maybe another box or two we don’t even know about yet get checked off…you’ll develop illness. That’s the way the human body works and you can pump iron and eat greens as much as you like but if the right boxes are checked you’re going to need to adjust to a new normal. Maybe you’ll stay healthy and able-bodied until the day you die!

You’re not better than anyone with chronic illness, curable disease, or disabilities. You’re just lucky.

(So far.)