Welcome to the first entry of the Olive Branch Blog on Health and Fitness. “That sounds like a pretty boring blog” you may think. “Why should I spend my valuable time reading it?” you may ask. Well, fair point.
Allow me to spend this first post justifying the existence of our health and fitness blog.
Our modest aspiration: to be a shining beacon of truth in a sea of bulls**t about health and fitness
I will be honest with you. The main reason I want to write this blog is because a lot of material you find on the internet about fitness and nutrition is TERRIBLE. Articles are often poorly argued at best and irresponsibly misleading at worst. Too often, you see blogs recycling material from other blogs who recycle from others and so on.
By the time a lot of information on fitness and nutrition reaches readers’ eyeballs, it’s impossible to know what studies the writer is basing their recommendations on, whether these studies represent the most recent research in the field, or if it’s based on any research at all and not just the writer looked at the first ranked entry in Google on the topic.
When was the last time you saw a fitness blogger provide their sources? That’s why we want to be a bit different.
Everything on this fitness blog will be backed up by citations….what?
Yeah, that’s right, people. Every time I make a claim about fitness or nutrition, I promise to provide you with a reference to the original scientific study that it’s based on. Now this doesn’t mean that everything on this blog is guaranteed 100% accurate every time; research on nutrition, health and fitness is constantly evolving and often, I will apply my interpretation to the data.
And you may disagree with my interpretation, which is fine. If you want to post in the comments to challenge my analysis of the data, I’m happy to have that conversation. But if your arguments aren’t backed up… well, it’s not up to me how tell you how to spend your time is it?
So what will we write about, then?
I want entries on this blog to be useful. Not just to Olive Branch customers, to EVERYONE. This blog will include pieces on:
- Nutrition guidance
- Exercise strategies
- Fitness success stories
- Fitness and nutrition myth busting
- News showcasing interesting developments in the world of fitness and nutrition
There will also be the occasional (I promise) news piece bragging about new Olive Branch initiatives and successes. We can’t help it if we’re proud…
Quality not quantity, people
I would totally write a new piece on this blog every day: so much to say and so many myths to bust! But there are only so many hours in the day and I don’t want to out pieces just to make the weekly quota. I’ll post regularly and as frequently as time allows; I only want to write stuff that you will find worth reading so only I’ll publish it when it’s good.
And I need your help, too!
Blogs are nothing without an awesome readership. This means I need your support to share these posts far and wide and spread the word about best practices for fitness, health and nutrition. People have been bombarded with poor information on these issues for far too long. We need to help them!
If we can try and move the needle on health and fitness issues just a little bit, then this blog will justify its existence.
Stay tuned for more posts on health, fitness and nutrition!