This is about mixing practicality with excellence, in today’s social media normalized world.
Online examples abound of beauty, athleticism, and glowing health. Usually in 20-somethings, at the phase of their biology where they can look sexy by mouth breathing and chewing pizza.
This isn’t the real-world norm.
Influencer content is popular precisely because it’s aspirational; if everyone were built like Captain America or Wonder Woman, there’d be no interest in following someone who looked like that. The popularity is proof of the rarity—a carefully selected rarity.
The professionals who train actors for superhero roles live and work in the real world. And the reality is this: when it’s time to deliver a rockin’ body or the role goes to someone else, all the brakes come off and the fit bod gets delivered in 3 months.
But once the shoot wraps, the actors cannot wait to let loose.
Because no one can run at 100% all the time. 5% body fat requires an enormous amount of self-deprivation and professionally cycled training, all leading up to a time window that coincides with shooting the shirtless or skin-tight bodysuit scenes.
Then folks get puffy. Until the next role.
At least one trainer came up with a different approach
Steve Zim trains celebrities and actors, and noticed something.
The deprivation diet he prescribed to his clients worked, but they fully admitted it wasn’t sustainable. The diet stopped immediately after the wrap party.
So he created a modified dietary model: about 80% strict, but much more doable than the 100% strict version that applied during the pre-shoot sculpting.
It wasn’t a free for all. There were still rules. But it was sustainable with little or no supervision required (read: no screaming and shaming babysitter).
And his clients were about 80% to target for their roles. So when the next role came, only a modest amount of fine-tuning was necessary.
80% fair is better than 0% amazing
Or in Asian parent terms, “Better a B- than an F.”
As an Asian parent, I can tell you that the usual response is “An A-? Why couldn’t you get an A+?” Because there’s no way around this fundamental math: you don’t achieve excellence without pushing for relentless improvement.
But when the game is The Long Game, sustainability of effort is King.
Consistency.
Push too hard, and people burn out, leave the field never to return, or worse.
They stop playing.
You can’t place, much less win, if you quit the game.
And when we’re talking about health and fitness, quitting the game can literally mean death.
You cannot afford to quit this particular game.
So I recommend moderate consistency
I’ll be returning to this concept in the future: there is absolutely a time to push. Especially if you want to achieve skills excellence.
But the risk is far greater of giving up any pursuit of health and fitness.
It’s the rare bird that can seemingly push at maximal effort at all times. Stop glorifying the rare birds and telling yourself they’re so far ahead of you, there’s no point in trying. In the game of wellness, competition is a meaningless concept (“Ha! Showed you, pancreas!”). Winning means living well and not dying prematurely.
Chris Haueter, one of the first Americans to achieve a jiu-jitsu black belt under the Gracies, said it best: “It’s not who’s good, it’s who’s left.”
You can do more than you think, but to achieve that you must first DO and NOT LEAVE.
If you’ve been around the block a few times, you know.
If super strict is only doable for a few months (because of burnout, injury, etc.) and moderation would call for some degree of squirming but is doable long term, go with moderation.
Action Item
Pick a modest health or fitness goal, the more modest the better. Change it from a distant stretch goal into a consistently doable action—focus less on outcome and more on process.
For me, it was switching from “Getting a jiu-jitsu blue belt” to “Go to BJJ class 3 times a week,” when I was already going 1–2 times a week.
From “Walking the Camino de Santiago” to “Walk 20 minutes every day.”
From “Doing a palms to floor backbend” to “Doing gentle yoga 10 minutes a day.”
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