Jacked full of lies

I hate Hollywood. It’s no secret. I hate how they make money off of lying to you. They’re masters of lies. The magic of Hollywood is the magic of lying. All to protect a brand, to protect their profits and stock price. Don’t get me wrong. I love business. I love brands, marketing and investing. But I fucking hate deception. In this case, it’s a deceptive hand that reaches into your pocket, and then reaches right into your subconscious, robbing you of your well-being, and replacing it with envy, fear and confusion. Celebrities’ brands are often defined by smiles and excessively marketed acts of charity which make you question if it’s just part of the branding strategy and basic PR, constantly telling the world how much good you’re doing, as well as showcasing a lifestyle that is greater than the average people. I have no problem with sharing your good deeds and good life if it’s inspiring and educational, but there’s a level beyond which it seems forceful, and therefore not authentic, especially when your egoic behavior and flat out body betrays the virtues you preach. From regularly promoting your larger than life achievements, the fancy expensive clothes you wear and of course, for male celebrities, your unusually muscular and defined physique, which also happens to be used to create a standard for men to follow and be “inspired” by to push and work hard to achieve success, usually meaning lots of money and being wanted by as many women as possible, the way those celebrities are wanted and envied. Nothing wrong with ambition and reaching for goals, but it’s a bucket load of cow shit when it destroys your mental health, because you feel like you have to kill yourself and sacrifice every part of normal life to attain such goals and feel worthy. What makes you worthy? Not appearances. Not self-absorption. Not deception. Not greed.

But they insist. Their message is a multi-layered diarrhea cake. Your worth is in your appearance. Your worth is in women falling at your feet. Your appearance is worthy if it’s like that of the action hero, for he is a god, and a worthy one. Until then, you’re not worthy. This is everything the ego wants to hear, and at the same time, all the agony you will live with. A reminder that you’ll never be enough. A reminder that you’re insignificant, and that they’re above you. But guess what. The gods are living in their own lies while they feed them to you. The goal is to sell you apps, merch, movie tickets. None of these things are inherently bad. Money and business is not the problem. Deceit is the problem. Deceit sneaks into your psyche and guides your daily thoughts and actions, right down to your core beliefs about yourself and the world. 

I bear no ill-will against anyone. Those celebrities are all human. They’re going through their own struggles like anyone else, but humans have ego, and the ego has this sneaky way of taking over you and dominating your life. This is even more true and dangerous when you have hundreds of millions who follow you and depend on your image, the only thing they see and know of you. The irony is you become a prisoner to your own image, like a king that can’t escape his own castle. This is almost all, if not all, celebrities in the industry. Often the brand  for men is based on strength, hard work, discipline and muscle, with a touch of family values, smiling and charity. Blood, sweat, tears, and respect. It’s all about earning. Sleep 4 hours a day. Work 16. Manage multiple businesses and family, while working out for hours almost every day on a 4-5000 calorie diet, 7-10 meals a day.

I’ve been training for almost 20 years. My rules were simple. Fuck steroids. I earn it naturally, and fuck working out for hours a day. I wanna have a normal life. In my late teens I was afraid my chest wasn’t big enough, because Hollywood said a real man has a big muscular chest. Fuck that. What does it mean to be worthy? It’s to know your own worth, and have the courage to be your authentic self. That’s it. Your worth is not defined by Hollywood standards, or cultural expectations. 

That said, with all my discipline, and even my genetics (I had a strong build since adolescence) I could never put on dozens of pounds of lean muscle, let alone in a matter of months. That’s not how biology works. You need sleep for your muscles to grow. You need time, as in years, to build muscle naturally, and you don’t build lean muscle when you’re stuffing your face with fucking 5000 calories a day. I gain fat on less than 3000 calories a day. I gain weight easily. That might give me an advantage in gaining mass and strength, but not if my goal is to be lean. Of course, now I don’t give a shit. I love to train for strength and health, but I don’t care about being super lean because I love to eat and enjoy my life without thinking about body fat percentage. The other point is that testosterone levels drop year after year as you get older, so there’s no way older people can get jacked and stay jacked. Not even younger people for that matter. So what happens when you put all that together? It equals bullshit. They’ll tell you you can attain inhuman physiques on an inhuman schedule and all without performance enhancing drugs. Now buy their products and services and you’ll be like them. Besides the bullshit standards established telling you you NEED to look like that to be a better person, it’s the flat out lying that insults our human dignity which is the bigger problem. Fame means influence. Influence means you impact millions of lives and minds, and that means you have tremendous responsibility. 

But greed doesn’t care about responsibility. Ego doesn’t like responsibility. When they reach a certain level, celebrities get trapped in a web of lies they don’t want to escape, because escape means everything they have would collapse. They’ll do anything to protect what they have. It doesn’t matter if it kills their authenticity, and it doesn't matter if it’s at your expense. 

So, do me a favor. Don’t look to celebrities to determine your self-worth. Don’t let them feed you their lies, and don’t feed their brands born out of lies.