Does The Habit Of A Healthy BMI Lead To Success?

Hi, I'm TJ Walker. This is the Habit Influencer. This is the show where we talk to you about all the latest information, insights, techniques on how to have positive habits in your life. Habits that will give you more fulfillment, better health, better career, better personal relationships. That's what we're all about here. I want to talk a little more detail and this is a controversial subject about the bmi, the body mass index. There is a story out on the I want to be as sensitive as I can because there is a school of thought that says if you talk about anyone's body by name then you're fat shaming and you are doing something awful, illegitimate. And I don't really want to get into that debate and I certainly don't want to make anyone feel bad. So I'm going to try to talk about this next story that's in the news in as sensitive a way as possible. The person who is a part of this controversy whose body is not being discussed is Jillian Michaels. She is a well known physical fitness expert, personal trainer. Many of you in the United States have seen her on shows like the Biggest Loser where they help people who are wildly obese lose often more than £100. Well, Jillian Michaels was on Buzzfeed, AM2DM, it's a talk radio show and she was asked to comment on a particular celebrity. I'm not even going to mention the celebrity's name because I don't want to get caught up in the controversy that I'm talking about somebody's body and a woman's body and making fun of. So I'm not making fun of anyone but Jillian Michaels, who is perfectly fit and has not an ounce of fat on her. I don't think she minds us saying that. Was asked about this particular celebrity who by all accounts is obese. The celebrity in question is a well known rapper who's recently won a number of awards, has a lot of songs, top of the charts and and has gotten a lot of attention for not looking like the typical beautiful thin singer movie star. So Jillian Michaels said this. Why are we celebrating her body? Why does it matter? Why aren't we celebrating her music? It isn't going to be awesome if she gets diabetes. Well, that hit a trigger for a number of people. And Jillian Michaels has been criticized very, very harshly on Twitter. Other social media people are attacking her, saying she's essentially awful for fat shaming this woman. I want to know what you think about this because it certainly is a bad thing to just say, oh, aren't you awful because you're overweight. I don't agree that that's an appropriate thing to say. You should condemn someone if they're just being a bully and trying to mock someone for their size. But there is something to this idea that if we just constantly tell people every size is of equal value and everyone is beautiful of any size, and if you're 200 pounds overweight, we should be celebrating the fact that. That you're in the media. There is a school of thought that says, wait a minute, we're kind of glamorizing an eating disorder. We're glamorizing something that leads to disease, that leads to early death. Folks, we're not talking about, you know, five, 10 pounds overweight here. And this particular individual, again, I haven't mentioned her name, certainly would appear she's 50, 60, maybe 100 pounds overweight. So for Jillian Michaels to then assume that this person has a good chance of getting diabetes, that's not crazy talk. When you are that far overweight, it's more common that you have diabetes than not have diabetes. And diabetes is a gateway to so many other healthcare problems, not the least of which is having to have various appendages amputated. Your mobility goes down, your chance of stroke. So many other problems, as we discussed in the last story, occur. Greater chance of heart attack, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, if you are excessively overweight, and certainly if you are obese. So she continues to ask, why are we celebrating her body? Let's focus on her music. To me, that's much different than just saying, oh, we shouldn't give her the award because she's fat. She didn't say that. Now, Jillian Michaels is no stranger to controversy. She has weighed in on the past, saying that she essentially thinks that there's a newfound political current correctness that glamorizes obesity. There's this sense among some that for so many years, people put a premium on being pencil thin, especially among women, that the pendulum needs to go back the other way. And if a woman or a man is really overweight, but especially a woman is 100, 200 pounds overweight, we need to say that's the new image of beauty. Jillian Michaels is saying this is not true. It's political correctness to say that. And really what we're doing is we are enabling people's pathway into early graves. I would like to hear from you because I do think reasonable people can have differing opinions on this subject. Has Jillian Michaels said anything insensitive? Is she a monster for pointing out that Diabetes is a really, really big problem in this world, and it is especially affecting people who are really overweight. I don't think that makes her a monster. I would love to hear from any of you, what is your opinion? Is it fair for a physical fitness expert like Jillian Michaels to show concerns about someone who's in the spotlight, but who is and is a role model for young people, especially young women, but suffers from obesity? We wouldn't say to someone who admits to being an alcoholic and says, yes, I drink five bottles of whiskey every night. We wouldn't say, well, we hope that person learns how to not drink five bottles of whiskey every night. That's going to put the person in an early grave. Not quite the same thing with food and being overweight, but in many cases you could certainly make the case that obesity is killing a lot more people in the world today than alcohol is or certainly drugs and hard drug. I mean, the number of people who die from heroin a year is basically insignificant to the number of people who die of obesity in one big city typically. What are your thoughts on this? I'd love to hear from you.