Mastering Fitness & Life: Dr. Darian Parker on Personal Training, Overcoming Struggles & Building a Sustainable Health Mindset | ANEW Ep. 54

🔥 What Does It Take to Build a Sustainable Fitness Career & Healthier Life?

Welcome back to the ANEW Body Insight Podcast with Dr. Supatra Tovar! In this powerful follow-up episode, we continue our deep dive with Dr. Darian Parker, the 2023 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year, fitness industry expert, and host of The Far Side of Fitness podcast.

In Part 1, we explored the myths of gym culture, the truth about personal training, and the impact of diet culture on sustainability. Now, in Part 2, we go even deeper—discussing the challenges trainers face, the reality of the fitness industry, and how overcoming adversity fuels excellence.

💡 Are new trainers set up to fail?
💡 Does gym culture actually help people—or just sell a dream?
💡 Are weight-loss drugs like GLP-1s changing the future of obesity, or just another quick fix?

🚨 If you're a fitness professional, gym-goer, or someone struggling with body image & diet culture, this episode is a must-listen!

🎙 Key Topics We Cover in This Episode:

✅ How Dr. Darian Parker became the 2023 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year 🏆
✅ Why most personal trainers fail within the first year—and how to build a lasting career
✅ The truth about gym culture & personal training myths
✅ How overcoming adversity fuels success in the fitness industry
✅ The dark side of diet culture & the reality of weight-loss medications like GLP-1s
✅ Why obesity isn’t a disease—it’s a man-made issue created by the food & pharma industries
✅ The importance of movement accountability & how fitness should be about connection, not punishment
✅ How to truly manifest success in fitness & life (hint: it takes action, not just visualization!)
✅ Why social media marketing doesn’t replace real-world networking for fitness professionals
✅ Breaking free from quick-fix solutions & building a sustainable, joyful relationship with food & exercise

For more details About Dr. Darian Parker visit his social media account here are the links:  https://doctordarianparker.com/,  https://www.linkedin.com/in/darianparker,  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-far-side-of-fitness/id1463806552. 

Dr. Parker’s raw honesty, deep experience, and powerful insights will make you rethink everything you know about fitness, personal training, and long-term well-being.

🎧 Tune in now for a conversation that challenges industry norms, promotes a more compassionate approach to health, and inspires a new way to think about fitness success.

Thank you for joining us on this journey to wellness. Remember, the insights and advice shared on the ANEW Body Insight Podcast are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making any changes to your health routine. To learn more about the podcast and stay updated on new episodes, visit ANEW Body Insight Podcast at anew-insight.com. To watch this episode on YouTube, visit @my.anew.insight. Follow us on social media at @my.anew.insight on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Threads for more updates and insights. Thank you for tuning in! Stay connected with us for more empowering stories and expert guidance. Until next time, stay well and keep evolving with ANEW Body Insight!

Transcript

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:01

Absolutely. I think you and I have a lot of parallels in our thinking and our approach to working with people, I think, is rooted in compassion and empathy for them, for what they're trying to do, what they're going through, and how we can improve their health. It's so nice to, to find a kindred spirit in this.

Dr. Darian Parker: 0:02

Cause I think it kind of encapsulates my journey is, um, know, in training, you go through tough times. It's a hard business to be in. It's a really difficult business. You know, the average lifespan as a trainer is 12 months. So I'm very things like when he was building his house this beautiful neighborhood in Las Vegas, that someone had hung a noose at the top of his house with a monkey in it, like a stuffed monkey type of thing. And I think, you know, winning the award was validation for all the hard work. All the struggle also I think for my approach, which is just very different, you know, I'm, I don't claim to be the smartest trainer or like I know the most and I have a lot of education and honestly, I really don't care about it that much like what I care about is making sure that people feel seen and I

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:05

So beautiful that that is the journey and the mission for you, despite having, I'm sure people discriminate against you and, and experiencing this even vicariously to hear a story like this about this man who had this. horrific noose hanging from his house. I actually, and I'll never forget it. I was in Gainesville, Florida once and went to a church.

Dr. Darian Parker: 0:06

I mean, luckily, really not. I mean, I think it was never like direct. So I want to be clear with that. But, you know, I think, you know, when you're in an environment, you're one of the only people that looks like you, especially for me, you know, I was, I ran a very high end club, super wealthy for 10 years there, but it was, I'm glad it was never overt, but certainly I always felt it, you know, indirectly here and there.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:08

Um, but it wasn't until we went into like a restaurant, I think it was in the middle of the country, probably somewhere in Nebraska and there were so many stares at us. People were just, they couldn't stop staring. And I'm like, why are they staring? And then I was thinking about it. I'm like, Oh, they're probably thinking, here's this white guy with this, I don't know what she is little, you know, Latin creature, you know, people don't tend to know what I am when they see me and thinking that we were together as a couple or something like that. Of course not. You have worth just as you are, but if you can really try to be, um, good at what you do, it also sends that clear message out there. Would you agree?

Dr. Darian Parker: 0:10

You know, you have to people. So how do you become a great trainer? You have to train a lot of people. You just, you have to hustle, you have to like actually spend a lot of time working with people and it's like anything, it's when you're a novice versus an expert, the novice, the information processing is really slow. You have to think about what you're doing. You just don't have the experience. You know, you get better. You got to come in back. Yeah. I hit that ball over and over again. You got to show up for your clients over and over again. See different types of clients, different situations, and then it starts slowing down.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:11

How do you inspire the novice trainer to actually get out there and really go for clients? I think, you know, we're, we're in a generation, especially Gen Z, where they want to work smarter, not harder. What do you think of that? And do you think that that actually sells themselves short? Do you believe that you have to pound the pavement?

Dr. Darian Parker: 0:12

I think it's a reframing of like, you actually need to know what you're getting yourself into. I think too many new trainers think they're just going to work out a bunch of times, work with some clients, give them, give them their version of what they think a good workout is. I just think we've set new trainers up to fail because we don't give them what reality is. At all,

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:13

Yes. I agree wholeheartedly. The only way I built my practice, which is now pretty much completely full, was doing exactly that. I was responding to every single referral that I could possibly respond to. I was on every Facebook therapist group and trying to be the first one to respond to these referrals. That's a, that's a tough, tough area to get into you have to pound the pavement and it's not something that you have to do consistently crazily forever, but especially in the first part of your business if you are not working as hard as you can really keeping your eye on that goal you're not going you're not going to get there just by you know, wishful thinking you really have to put in In the work, right? And I think people do, just to, to tag onto that manifesting myth. I do think that people really have a misconception about what manifesting truly is. Because, yes. You have to think about your goal. You have to want your goal. You have to see it actually happening and visualizing it happening is so important, but it doesn't stop there. Because it, everything that you do in the fitness industry or what we do, uh, as therapists, It's about connecting with people, and if you're not connecting with people, it will never happen. For you, it'll happen much slower, and you'll get frustrated because it's not happening instantaneously. So, Give me some pictures of other like fitness myths in particular that you find, whether it's about a certain idea or whether it's certain products, uh, give us an idea of what you've kind of explored on the podcast in terms of these myths.

Dr. Darian Parker: 0:18

about it. Now, if you believe it works, I believe in the placebo effect too that if you believe it works for you. Okay, great for that.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:19

hmm. Exactly. I think all like, like wild diet trends fall into that, like the carnivore diet, like you will be healthy if you eat only meat, it's like, no, my goodness, or, you know, having one meal a day. And that, Yep. Yep. Yep. Being your only source of nutrition, I, I really think that people want to buy into these things because they want a quick fix.

Dr. Darian Parker: 0:20

and I think it's just human nature though.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:21

Yes, I agree. I think, you know, in diet culture too, it's very similar. It's like you go to this extreme diet and that is what's going to get you there as quick as possible. And it may make you lose some muscle and water relatively quickly, but as soon as you go off the diet, your body bounces back because it does not like to be in restriction. Uh, you know, weight and shape as we have evolved along, we really did not have as big of a problem with obesity until the industrialization and the processing of food. Once you started to tinker with, Kind of mother nature and creating these packaged foods full of preservatives and artificial colors and flavorings and things that we can't pronounce. Now, I understand classifying it as a way to reduce stigma. And I think that that's very important that we de stigmatize how we look at people who are considered overweight and obese. But I think taking and saying that obesity is a disease makes people powerless. And that invites, you know, big pharma and diet culture to come in with the cure. So if we look at this, and it's not to say that industry is, you know, evil or, you know, out to get us or anything like that. But, you know, we are, we live in a country that is fueled by industry and capitalism, and we need to make money somehow. And the packaging of food was, in a revolutionary. It helped to bring food to so many people who are less food secure. And when you look at what goes behind that, a great book to read about that is, um, Sugar, Salt and Fat. It's a, just a really fascinating look into the food industry and how that those, practices along with the aggressive marketing practices and how food is actually presented to us in the grocery store is really manipulative, So they can actually stay in business. And certainly if you look at big pharma, you know, oftentimes, yes, they're trying to cure, you know, diseases, but it's really about attacking the symptom as opposed to the cause. So, I would say it's, it's, it's more financially driven, um, and, and, and it benefits these industries more than it benefits us. Well, I just recently saw a study that, showed that two thirds of people who go on these medications for weight loss don't stay on long enough to reach the kind of optimal dose. And there's a lot of reasons for that. I mean, first of all, it's financial. Um, it seems less, uh, voluntary, like if you were on a restrictive diet and you were hungry all the time because you're kind of taking out that, um, the hunger feeling. You're also keeping food in the stomach for longer. But I think a lot of people are seeing problems with that in particular. Like people can't get surgeries, uh, because they, they, even if they fast for 24 hours, they still have food in their stomach. And you see a lot of compounding pharmacies putting out questionable semaglutide treatments. compounded injections, some of them that just contain insulin, which is like completely frightening to me because people can go into a coma if they have too much insulin. So you see all of this happening. And I just, I just know personally, and I know with my clients that there's a natural way to do this. Totally not true, you guys. Carbs are good. Carbs are good. Um, we can reformulate that and we can enjoy our food. Hunger isn't a bad thing, you guys. Hunger is your body's way of telling you it needs nutrition. It's a good thing. And when we give that to our body, And when we listen intently to what our bodies need, then our bodies feel safe. entertainment

Dr. Darian Parker: 0:32

I think about the people who are most successful that I've ever met in my life, there are very few people who are willing to actually go through the gauntlet. It's actually not a lot of people.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:33

Because they realize that the path that they can take is one of joy as opposed to punishment. And so that's what I'm really hoping for. Whether or not I can create the revolution I'm hoping for, or you're hoping for, we don't know. Because we do live in this we need this now kind of society. But what we are seeing is it's not sustainable.

Dr. Darian Parker: 0:34

I think you have to solve other issues before this. I really do. We need to, like, release the chains off of humans so they can actually focus on themselves. Those are way bigger issues way bigger issues, people are making choices for places they want to work just because they can get health insurance. That should never be a thing for humans.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:36

Um, And these are really big issues, but just having these conversations, I think, are, is so important. in starting us on this pathway. So hopefully there's people out there who are listening, who are inspired to try to take a different route, um, who are not so concerned about the quick fix, but maybe about creating something sustainable and joyful moving forward while expanding their awareness to others and those in need. Yay. Well, thank you all for tuning into the ANEW Body Insight podcast. We look forward to our next exciting interview and we really hope you join us next time. Thank you.