Turns out, nobody did. At least, nobody with your health in mind.
The 10,000 steps goal? It came from a 1960s Japanese marketing campaign for a pedometer called “Manpo-kei” (which literally translates to “10,000 steps meter”). Not a health study. Not medical research. A marketing slogan that sounded good and stuck.
And I’ve been beating myself up for sixty years of collective human marketing genius!
The Water Lie We All Bought
Remember those 8 glasses of water we’re all supposed to drink daily? I’ve spent years carrying around water bottles, counting glasses, fearing dehydration if I fell short.
That recommendation traces back to a 1945 Food and Nutrition Board suggestion that mentioned 8 glasses as an approximate need – but the same report noted that most of this water comes from food. Somehow, the food part got conveniently forgotten while the 8-glasses part became gospel.
Want to know what’s really wild? Many of the organizations still pushing the “8 glasses daily” message are funded by… wait for it… bottled water companies.
We’ve been carrying around plastic guilt because Dasani needed us to feel thirsty.
The Body Mass Deception
Then there’s one of my favorites: BMI – the Body Mass Index that’s supposedly the gold standard for determining if you’re healthy or an overweight mess. I can’t tell you how many people I know who’ve felt terrible about themselves because some chart said they were “overweight.”
Here’s what they don’t tell you: BMI was created in the 1830s by Adolphe Quetelet, a Belgian mathematician – not a doctor – who was studying white European men to define the “average man” for social physics research. It was never intended to assess individual health, and it’s never been validated for most of the population.
Yet somehow this 200-year-old formula designed for 19th-century European men became the standard by which doctors still judge everyone’s health today in 2025.
The Pattern Behind the Madness
These aren’t isolated incidents. They’re part of a massive pattern of artificial standards that have shaped how we measure ourselves:
The 2,000-calorie daily diet? An arbitrary number the FDA chose for food labels because they needed one standard. It doesn’t reflect what most people actually need.
The “ideal” woman’s measurements (36-24-36)? Statistical averages compiled from thousands of women – but when researchers measured each individual woman, exactly zero women matched those proportions.
Eight hours of sleep? While sleep needs vary widely, this number got locked in partly because it fit neatly into the industrial workday schedule.
The “5 a day” fruits and vegetables? Originally developed by the National Cancer Institute working with produce marketing boards. Of course I’m not saying fruits and vegetables aren’t good for you, but the specific number was as much about selling produce as promoting health.
What This Really Costs Us
Here’s what really gets me about all this: We’re not just chasing random numbers. We’re living with the constant background hum of failure because we can’t meet standards that were never real in the first place.
“I only got 7,000 steps today.”
“I should drink more water.”
“My BMI says I’m overweight.”
“I only ate three servings of vegetables.”
We’re failing tests that were designed by people trying to sell us something, using metrics that were never meant for us, measuring ourselves against averages that represent no actual human who ever existed.
The Deeper Question
But the numbers themselves aren’t the real problem.
The real problem is how easily we accept external measures of our worth without questioning where they came from or whether they serve us.
When did we decide that some manufacturer’s marketing department knew better than our own bodies what we needed?
When did we start trusting formulas over our own experience?
Your body has been keeping you alive for probably many decades without needing a fitness tracker. It knows when it needs water, when it needs food, when it needs rest. It’s been doing this since before anyone invented the concept of “optimal.”
Breaking Free from Fictional Finish Lines
And I’m not saying taking care of your health doesn’t matter. Movement matters. Hydration matters. Eating well matters. Taking care of yourself absolutely matters.
But maybe – just maybe – your individual body knows what it needs better than some number a statistician came up with 60 years ago.
Maybe the reason you can’t hit those targets consistently isn’t because you’re failing. Maybe it’s because the targets were never real in the first place!
What if instead of measuring ourselves against marketing campaigns disguised as health advice, we started trusting the wisdom of our own experience?
What if “normal” isn’t something to achieve, but something to question?
What if the most radical thing you could do is stop chasing numbers that were never meant for you and start living in — and loving — the body you actually have?
Your Turn to Question Everything
So here’s my challenge: Look at the numbers you’re measuring yourself against. Ask where they came from. Ask who benefits when you feel like you’re falling short.
And then ask the most important question of all: What would change if you stopped trying to fit into someone else’s formula and started trusting your own?
Because the truth is, you’ve been succeeding at being human your entire life. No app required.
Ready to question more invisible rules that might be running your life? Join other conscious rule-breakers getting regular reality checks and gentle rebellions against artificial limitations. [Join The Freeflow Rebellion here.]
Sources & Further Reading:
- Catrine Tudor-Locke, “Steps to Better Cardiovascular Health: How Many Steps Does It Take to Achieve Good Health and How Confident Are We in This Number?” (2004)
- Institute of Medicine, “Dietary Reference Intakes for Water, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride, and Sulfate” (2005)
- Nuttall, Frank Q. “Body Mass Index: Obesity, BMI, and Health: A Critical Review” (2015)
