When traveling though Europe you can really notice what a healthy society looks like.
America's obesity rate has exploded in the last 20 years. I was lucky enough to have a chiropractor tell me if I didn't lose weight my life would suck.
It's a social taboo for doctors to just outright say you're going to have a large array of medical issues unless you get to a healthy weight. You have the Huffington Post which runs a new "You can be morbidly obese and just fine" article once a month.
As someone who used to be morbidly obese, it was a living hell. I was diabetic had no luck finding a partner and was in constant pain. Did the keto diet, lost about 70 lb, got rid of my diabetes, and finally met somebody nice in real life .
Diabetes doesn't care about your feelings. I lean left , but theirs an insane amount of victimization on the left.
You can buy a salad at any fast food restaurant, meaning you have access to healthy food even in a "food desert".
It just takes an insane amount of self control. It's much easier to call everyone else a fat shammer. Doesn't help with your chronic pain or health issues though
The bar for what counts as physical activity seems to be pretty low. I haven't done anything that I would consider a physical activity in the last month but if walking 10 minutes to the grocery store once a month counts, then I am living an active life.
Keep in mind that the medical classification of overweight and obese don't line up with what most people think of when they hear those terms. Anyone who is taller than average and has even a little bit of muscle mass will come in as overweight or obese.
Personally it used to cause me a ton of mental anguish until I realized that BMI (the metric used to classify someone as overweight or obese) is flat out wrong. At my peak fitness level my BMI was 30. I was lifting weights 3 days a week and running 3 days a week. Lifting sessions were 90 minutes and I was capable of running half marathons in less than 2 hours. My resting heart rate was between 52 and 57 BPM. I wasn't an athlete but my fitness level was pretty good.
I'm obese (bmi 31, i'm a big guy) but active: i walk several miles most days, lift weights, rock climb, and use the rowing machine, adding exercise on to my walks about 4 days a week. Still, it's easy to gain weight and hard to lose it.
There is some reason to think that environmental pollutants are impact hormones in humans causing an overall rise in obesity. Genetic factors definitely play a role. My father never exercised, ate what he wanted, and was always skinny. I was not so lucky.
I'm "obese" my medical standards but wear a size men's medium with a 34 waist simply because I workout a lot. BMI is a terrible estimator for anyone that lifts heavy weights. I can still run a mile in under 8 minutes too.
I'm always shocked the medical community still uses BMI in 2022.
Obesity is a major risk factor for COVID hospitalization and death[1]. A few highlights from the CDC[2]:
* Having obesity may triple the risk of hospitalization due to a COVID-19 infection.
* Obesity decreases lung capacity and reserve and can make ventilation more difficult.
* More than 900,000 adult COVID-19 hospitalizations occurred in the United States between the beginning of the pandemic and November 18, 2020. Models estimate that 271,800 (30.2%) of these hospitalizations were attributed to obesity.
> “A huge proportion of your immune system is actually in your GI tract,” says Dan Peterson, assistant professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. [1]
The old saying, you are what you eat is true. A diet that leads to obesity often leads to a weaker immune system. In the last 10-15 years there's been a bunch of research on how GI health relates to our immune system.
I think this can't be much of a surprise.
But perhaps in a HN context, maybe the follow-on questions should be:
- has tech made things better or worse in recent years, and why?
- how could tech make things better?
For example, one might have thought the rise of mobile devices would let people be more ... mobile. "Previously I would have sat at my desk to do this task, but now I can walk to the park and do the same task." But that seems not to happen that much. Or one might suppose that wireless headsets and voice commands might lead to people being able to do stuff while walking etc. That also seems to not happen too much. When devices support our mobility, why do we feel such a powerful pull to sit on couches looking at phones?
And in a forward-looking way, though some people see opportunities for VR-based exercise, I gotta wonder how effective that will really be?
> When devices support our mobility, why do we feel such a powerful pull to sit on couches looking at phones?
Because we always wanted to sit on the couch. Before it was to watch TV. Phones made moving around more possible, but we never wanted to do that in the first place.
Mobile devices are great for passively consuming content and recording your surroundings. For the most part, that is not what people are using computers for when they're using computers for work. They need keyboards and full-size displays and the ability to install software that doesn't come from Google's or Apple's walled gardens.
Heck, mobile devices might make it worse by keeping you constantly connected, receiving work calls, e-mails, Slack notifications, all reminding you to stop doing physical activity and get back to your desk. They might also make it worse by the fact that you can passively consume content from them. It's not like you can just walk around or go for a run while watching episodes of your favorite show on your phone. You need to watch the road in front of you, which means you need to stop moving to watch something, which you can now do from anywhere instead of only when you're on your couch.
I can tell you that when I played Ingress, I walked a fair bit more as a result. I also ran a lot, but tbh my runs would cut short because by mile ~10 my phone battery would be low.)
Here's a hot take: a lot of these health issues and negative outcomes can be tied back to the automobile.
The car enabled urban sprawl. The car and associated infrastructure (eg parking, roads) has destroyed communities. Even a lot of crime depends on cars. Cars mean you simply don't have to walk anywhere at all. It's why obesity is worse in less dense areas than, say, NYC. Cars enable less dense housing and that kills things like having local shops, eateries and public community spaces to some degree.
Dense housing also means you have to be somewhat tolerant of other people and their quirks. I wonder if the unbelievable selfishness that seems to have taken hold in a large portion of people in the US (in particular) is a consequence of not having to deal with people by virtue of this car lifestyle.
Cars also allow you to psychologically remove yourself from things like homelessness, drug use and poverty. I think it's a large reason why, for example, I see so many people in SF go on about how amazing the city is. I mean have these people never walked down Market Street? Or the Mission? Or the Tenderloin?
Weirdly I never really see much about these negative externalities of affordable private transportation.
This survey asked respondents if, in the past month, they did any physical activity outside of their regular job. People who said “no” were classified as inactive.
By this classification, somebody who is very active in their job (think of a postman walking 8 hours as an example) would be classified as inactive.
True I can see that in myself too but I'm not going to change...
I'm working on losing some weight by dieting but I just don't like sports. And my health isn't that important to me. I just don't care enough to do it just for that reason. And I never will. Any campaigns to encourage it will be lost on me. I have to die of something eventually :) It's important to enjoy life too. Most sports enthusiasts actually like what they're doing so it's easy for them.
I do go for hikes but not really for the exercise, more for the peace of mind of being in nature than the workout. I also walk a lot just for transportation because I don't own a car. But I live in a small city so distances aren't enough to class as real exercise.
> For these maps, physical inactivity for adults is defined as not participating in any physical activities outside of work over the last month – activities such as running, walking for exercise, or gardening.
Weird definition. A physical job could fall under physical inactivity.
About 1/4 of US deaths each year are from heart disease[1]. When you have it as a chronic disease, living with it, you have less energy and capability to do physical activity. I know people living with it who have trouble grocery shopping without being out of energy.
Heart disease is mostly a lifestyle disease based mostly on eating habits (e.g. eating too much cholesterol over a long time). This speaks volumes about the US diet.
>Heart disease is mostly a lifestyle disease based mostly on eating habits (e.g. eating too much cholesterol over a long time). This speaks volumes about the US diet.
"This advisory was developed after a review of human studies on the relationship of dietary cholesterol with blood lipids, lipoproteins, and cardiovascular disease risk to address questions about the relevance of dietary cholesterol guidance for heart health. Evidence from observational studies conducted in several countries generally does not indicate a significant association with cardiovascular disease risk."
Dietary cholesterol is not a threat, surplus calories and processed sugar is.
Honestly it's worse than this sounds. According to a UNC study only 12% of adults are metabolically healthy.
>Data revealed that only 12.2 percent of American adults are metabolically healthy, which means that only 27.3 million adults are meeting recommended targets for cardiovascular risk factors management, according to researchers.
I'm a bit surprised that "active enough to protect their health" seems to be defined as "taking time for sport." I'm willing to bet that many (no idea how many) people among these 25% have a work that requires considerable physical effort while many (again, no idea how many) among the remaining 75% spend their days sitting in front of a computer.
I may be wrong, but it feels like a social marker more than a health marker.
the media has spent the last 10 years telling us being fat is acceptable. then covid comes around and how dare you mention losing weight as a partial remedy (78% of those hospitalized with covid are obese). they want us fat and guzzling food products (i.e. chemicals) so we use their allopathic slash and burn "cures".
I'm considered overweight by BMI measurements due to my height & build, but I'm actually quite active by lifting weights, playing basketball, and running regularly(5x a week usually).
I'm in the best shape of my life and yet these indicators of average health do not really represent me. Getting in that shape I believe saved my life when I got covid prior to the vaccines being available to everyone (Jan 2021). It was a couple of rough nights breathing with mild heart/chest inflammation. Thankfully that all went away with enough time (up to 10-12 months).
My lung capacity has increased from all of the cardio and my resting heart rate is in the 50s down from the 80-100s years ago. Wim Hof's deep breathing exercises have helped me through all of this not only by increasing my lung capacity, but also the mindfulness brought when in extreme discomfort and pain. If you experience any type of anxiety or breathing difficulties, give his techniques a try.
Exercise has so many benefits that it's hard to express in a single comment alone but should definitely be a priority in life when you realize them in your own journey.
Here is my own experience and advice about health and physical fitness, shared in hopes it will encourage and help people who are living unhealthy lives, because they have been misled by society. I'm typing this on a touch screen, which sucks (I'm more of a Model M kind of guy), so I'll make it brief.
I have always been active, always moving around, exploring the woods and climbing up and down hills, that sort of thing. I do sit in front of the computer a lot, but also get up and move around plenty, and do work outside on sunny days. (I live out in the country.) I'm not hesitant to walk or run a long distance, and in fact last year I walked about 10 miles to get a spare vehicle when the battery on my truck literally exploded at the post office. Was sore as hell on arrival, but did enjoy the scenery, plus the knowledge that I'm one tough mother fucker.
Physical activity is of major importance to staying healthy. Some people are always taking shortcuts, trying to do as little as possible. That road leads to death. Note: I DO NOT work out at the gym. That sort of thing can have its use, but working on the FARM (or similar type of work) is much better overall.
I used to drink soft drinks. I do not anymore, and it has been one of the best changes I ever made. The sugar is bad and will make you fat. The acidity destroys one's teeth. The caffeine intake, in quantity, is IMO unhealthy.
I eat a variety of pure and natural foods. Examples: whole milk, eggs, cheese, butter, wheat bread, bacon, homemade hamburger, homemade pizza, salad, baked potato, vegetables of all kinds, oatmeal, rice, beans, beef, chicken, fish. Yes, I add sugar and salt to flavor, and not to excess. I DO NOT eat processed junk like TV dinners, or load up on sweets or the substance euphemistically called "ice cream." I do eat these things on occasion, if called for, but not regularly.
I quit fast food restaurants like McDs, Burger King, Taco Bell. They're all garbage. The only "fast food" I eat these days is healthy stuff like authentic Mexican food from a family owned restaurant, or Chick-Fil-A, and in moderation because it's cheaper and better to eat home cooked meals at home.
I have a garden every year and am often eating fresh fruits and vegetables during the summer. I also can some things for winter, or make big batches of canned soup for eating over time.
I don't continually stuff myself with food. Some days I take a break and just drink milk, or water. I believe fasting is very important to long term health. The more I eat, the more active I am. The less active I am, the less I eat. Because I have muscle, and stay busy, and don't overeat, or eat JUNK, I don't get fat.
I drink a little (homemade) alcohol, but in moderation, and not daily. I also occasionally smoke homegrown tobacco, and frequently smoke home grown WEED.
I get a full night's rest, every night. This is of critical importance. I also refuse to work a stressful, shitty corporate job, preferring instead to be DIRT POOR rather than destroy my life, health, and sanity like that.
I don't take any medicine at all. I also don't ever get sick, period. The last time I ever got sick was over 25 years ago, when I was a boy.
90% of health advice from the mainstream is total bunk and is in fact purposely designed to KILL you. For example, veganism. Want to be a weak, unhealthy soyboy? Be a vegan.
I saw one guy on here commenting the other day about his vegan girlfriend who is in ill health, with serious problems including joints getting stiff and locking up, steadily going downhill. The idiot "doctors" had no advice other than "stop eating meat"--which is exactly the problem in the first place, but this guy didn't make the connection and was at his wit's end. Stay the hell away from these quacks!
Yes, I fully agree that the Western meat industry is horrible and evil, but the solution is to make friends with decent farmers and butchers who treat their animals humanely, not deprive yourself of vital nutrients.
In closing, let me share an anecdote with you I read the other day, which should help you understand humans and the world we live in a little better:
"Funny story: I have a friend who works for a social media influencer (with 1 million followers) who does health fitness. This person says she's vegan and does just yoga, pushing lots of powders, etc. She is in incredible shape and has a million women following her and wondering why they don't look like her, and they keep paying more to try. Well the big deception is she actually is keto/carnivore, and when doing her real workouts she is definitely not doing yoga.
She was elevated because she would push the agenda. The deception runs deep."
Definitively. As someone who runs, I've been amazed at how many people think a MILE is a long distance to run or that people have very little conception of how much time it takes for an average human to simply walk a mile.
The ubiquity of car-centric designs in major population areas of the US has produced immeasurable harm both environmentally and physically. I've seen obese family members lose tens of pounds while spending a few months in Europe in part because they have to walk a few extra miles each day (and in part due to dietary changes, I'm sure).
I had to walk to pick up my car at the hospital yesterday with my young daughter, and it was a 1.5 mile walk. It was pretty easy, and my daughter had a lot of fun. But a lot of people wouldn’t have attempted it because they would think a 30 minute walk is nuts.
It ended up being a great walk and way better than using a cab to retrieve our car. I had hemmed and hawed for awhile about how to get the car back, looking into car seat options in a cab, the bus, asking a friend for a ride, and then I looked it up and realized it was a safe, 1.5 mile walk.
There are so many advantages to being active and fit. One of them is that it makes your world seem smaller and more accessible.
10km daily is my bare minimum.Granted during winter I walk some part of it, up to 30-40% or even more because i need my body to slowly adjust to cold temps.This is especially true for sub 8-10C and almost mandatory for <0C(sometimes i don't need to, due to the godly cold showers).
Any physical activity is good at the end of the day.For those who want a 'scientific' explanation: during movement (eg walking) the amygdala "turns off", and you become more relaxed, because that's responsible for emotions.For the rest,take it for granted: better pump for the entire day, you don't feel jittery after coffee, and you actually don't feel the need to eat as much.(as in frequency, you might want to eat more but fewer times during the day)
I don't think I would've thought a mile as a "long run", but until age 30 it was further than I'd ever run without having to stop to rest. If you don't run regularly, running for any length of time is hard, even if you're in good shape. (I was biking ~70 miles a week when I first started running, but unless you're really pushing, that doesn't work your heart of lungs anywhere near as hard.)
When I started running (or rather, attempted many times over a few years) I hated every moment of it and would regularly quit after literally 60 seconds. I had to learn to run very slow to start off. Very soon my pace drastically quickened and anything below 5k felt like a complete cop out.
Although years of not stretching has led to regular achilles tendon pain now (at least I think that's the cause). I'm stretching and doing calf raises.
> As someone who runs, I've been amazed at how many people think a MILE is a long distance to run
Most people, especially past a certain age, don’t run distances. A mile is a long distance to run for the average person (across all ages). We don’t need to gatekeep physical activity.
But fortunately you don’t need to be a runner to be active. Walking is substantially better than sitting.
How can "active enough to protect their health" be anything other than arbitrary, a value in the eye of the beholder? To take that fluffy indeterminate thing and use it to divide up society isn't much more than saying "we think 25% of people don't move around enough". That's not very authoritative.
More interesting would be "active enough for optimal health", since you can at least approach an objective definition of "optimal".
This article is based on self-report data, where the (relatively objective) criteria is:
> Respondents were classified as physically inactive if they responded “no” to the following question: “During the past month, other than your regular job, did you participate in any physical activities or exercises such as running, calisthenics, golf, gardening, or walking for exercise?”
It doesn't attempt to determine what an appropriate level to "protect health" is; that's pure editorialization on the part of the byline.
"active enough that factors other than exercise dominate health" would seem to be a reasonable bar to me. Obviously you can only estimate this, but that still seems useful.
[+] [-] atestu|4 years ago|reply
Source: https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
[+] [-] 999900000999|4 years ago|reply
America's obesity rate has exploded in the last 20 years. I was lucky enough to have a chiropractor tell me if I didn't lose weight my life would suck.
It's a social taboo for doctors to just outright say you're going to have a large array of medical issues unless you get to a healthy weight. You have the Huffington Post which runs a new "You can be morbidly obese and just fine" article once a month.
As someone who used to be morbidly obese, it was a living hell. I was diabetic had no luck finding a partner and was in constant pain. Did the keto diet, lost about 70 lb, got rid of my diabetes, and finally met somebody nice in real life .
Diabetes doesn't care about your feelings. I lean left , but theirs an insane amount of victimization on the left.
You can buy a salad at any fast food restaurant, meaning you have access to healthy food even in a "food desert".
It just takes an insane amount of self control. It's much easier to call everyone else a fat shammer. Doesn't help with your chronic pain or health issues though
[+] [-] danbruc|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bognition|4 years ago|reply
Personally it used to cause me a ton of mental anguish until I realized that BMI (the metric used to classify someone as overweight or obese) is flat out wrong. At my peak fitness level my BMI was 30. I was lifting weights 3 days a week and running 3 days a week. Lifting sessions were 90 minutes and I was capable of running half marathons in less than 2 hours. My resting heart rate was between 52 and 57 BPM. I wasn't an athlete but my fitness level was pretty good.
[+] [-] efficax|4 years ago|reply
There is some reason to think that environmental pollutants are impact hormones in humans causing an overall rise in obesity. Genetic factors definitely play a role. My father never exercised, ate what he wanted, and was always skinny. I was not so lucky.
[+] [-] aidenn0|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chaosbutters314|4 years ago|reply
I'm always shocked the medical community still uses BMI in 2022.
[+] [-] hffftz|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] hnuser847|4 years ago|reply
* Having obesity may triple the risk of hospitalization due to a COVID-19 infection.
* Obesity decreases lung capacity and reserve and can make ventilation more difficult.
* More than 900,000 adult COVID-19 hospitalizations occurred in the United States between the beginning of the pandemic and November 18, 2020. Models estimate that 271,800 (30.2%) of these hospitalizations were attributed to obesity.
[1] https://dom-pubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dom.145...
[2] https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/obesity-and-covid-19.html#:....
[+] [-] mfer|4 years ago|reply
The old saying, you are what you eat is true. A diet that leads to obesity often leads to a weaker immune system. In the last 10-15 years there's been a bunch of research on how GI health relates to our immune system.
[1] https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/research/advancements-in-res...
[+] [-] elil17|4 years ago|reply
The good news is that exercising will improve your health outcomes regardless of your weight (http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2016-097400).
[+] [-] abeppu|4 years ago|reply
- has tech made things better or worse in recent years, and why?
- how could tech make things better?
For example, one might have thought the rise of mobile devices would let people be more ... mobile. "Previously I would have sat at my desk to do this task, but now I can walk to the park and do the same task." But that seems not to happen that much. Or one might suppose that wireless headsets and voice commands might lead to people being able to do stuff while walking etc. That also seems to not happen too much. When devices support our mobility, why do we feel such a powerful pull to sit on couches looking at phones?
And in a forward-looking way, though some people see opportunities for VR-based exercise, I gotta wonder how effective that will really be?
[+] [-] MattGaiser|4 years ago|reply
Because we always wanted to sit on the couch. Before it was to watch TV. Phones made moving around more possible, but we never wanted to do that in the first place.
[+] [-] nonameiguess|4 years ago|reply
Heck, mobile devices might make it worse by keeping you constantly connected, receiving work calls, e-mails, Slack notifications, all reminding you to stop doing physical activity and get back to your desk. They might also make it worse by the fact that you can passively consume content from them. It's not like you can just walk around or go for a run while watching episodes of your favorite show on your phone. You need to watch the road in front of you, which means you need to stop moving to watch something, which you can now do from anywhere instead of only when you're on your couch.
[+] [-] closeparen|4 years ago|reply
Google Maps and its transit directions make it fairly idiot-proof to navigate a city on your own two feet, assuming transit is decent.
Not so much our kind of tech, but bicycle materials and components have advanced pretty rapidly I think.
[+] [-] lkbm|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cletus|4 years ago|reply
The car enabled urban sprawl. The car and associated infrastructure (eg parking, roads) has destroyed communities. Even a lot of crime depends on cars. Cars mean you simply don't have to walk anywhere at all. It's why obesity is worse in less dense areas than, say, NYC. Cars enable less dense housing and that kills things like having local shops, eateries and public community spaces to some degree.
Dense housing also means you have to be somewhat tolerant of other people and their quirks. I wonder if the unbelievable selfishness that seems to have taken hold in a large portion of people in the US (in particular) is a consequence of not having to deal with people by virtue of this car lifestyle.
Cars also allow you to psychologically remove yourself from things like homelessness, drug use and poverty. I think it's a large reason why, for example, I see so many people in SF go on about how amazing the city is. I mean have these people never walked down Market Street? Or the Mission? Or the Tenderloin?
Weirdly I never really see much about these negative externalities of affordable private transportation.
[+] [-] rootusrootus|4 years ago|reply
Possible. Though personally I'd lean more towards the increase of heavily processed high calorie, high carb foods.
Consider that Europe still has a high obesity rate, but much less of the urban sprawl the US has.
[+] [-] drewg123|4 years ago|reply
This survey asked respondents if, in the past month, they did any physical activity outside of their regular job. People who said “no” were classified as inactive.
By this classification, somebody who is very active in their job (think of a postman walking 8 hours as an example) would be classified as inactive.
[+] [-] GekkePrutser|4 years ago|reply
I'm working on losing some weight by dieting but I just don't like sports. And my health isn't that important to me. I just don't care enough to do it just for that reason. And I never will. Any campaigns to encourage it will be lost on me. I have to die of something eventually :) It's important to enjoy life too. Most sports enthusiasts actually like what they're doing so it's easy for them.
I do go for hikes but not really for the exercise, more for the peace of mind of being in nature than the workout. I also walk a lot just for transportation because I don't own a car. But I live in a small city so distances aren't enough to class as real exercise.
[+] [-] Zababa|4 years ago|reply
Weird definition. A physical job could fall under physical inactivity.
[+] [-] mfer|4 years ago|reply
Heart disease is mostly a lifestyle disease based mostly on eating habits (e.g. eating too much cholesterol over a long time). This speaks volumes about the US diet.
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm
[+] [-] Pelic4n|4 years ago|reply
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31838890/
"This advisory was developed after a review of human studies on the relationship of dietary cholesterol with blood lipids, lipoproteins, and cardiovascular disease risk to address questions about the relevance of dietary cholesterol guidance for heart health. Evidence from observational studies conducted in several countries generally does not indicate a significant association with cardiovascular disease risk."
Dietary cholesterol is not a threat, surplus calories and processed sugar is.
[+] [-] faet|4 years ago|reply
>Data revealed that only 12.2 percent of American adults are metabolically healthy, which means that only 27.3 million adults are meeting recommended targets for cardiovascular risk factors management, according to researchers.
https://www.unc.edu/posts/2018/11/28/only-12-percent-of-amer...
[+] [-] Yoric|4 years ago|reply
I may be wrong, but it feels like a social marker more than a health marker.
[+] [-] oversocialized|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thenerdhead|4 years ago|reply
I'm in the best shape of my life and yet these indicators of average health do not really represent me. Getting in that shape I believe saved my life when I got covid prior to the vaccines being available to everyone (Jan 2021). It was a couple of rough nights breathing with mild heart/chest inflammation. Thankfully that all went away with enough time (up to 10-12 months).
My lung capacity has increased from all of the cardio and my resting heart rate is in the 50s down from the 80-100s years ago. Wim Hof's deep breathing exercises have helped me through all of this not only by increasing my lung capacity, but also the mindfulness brought when in extreme discomfort and pain. If you experience any type of anxiety or breathing difficulties, give his techniques a try.
Exercise has so many benefits that it's hard to express in a single comment alone but should definitely be a priority in life when you realize them in your own journey.
[+] [-] xivzgrev|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] an9n|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] theandrewbailey|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skeptical1|4 years ago|reply
I have always been active, always moving around, exploring the woods and climbing up and down hills, that sort of thing. I do sit in front of the computer a lot, but also get up and move around plenty, and do work outside on sunny days. (I live out in the country.) I'm not hesitant to walk or run a long distance, and in fact last year I walked about 10 miles to get a spare vehicle when the battery on my truck literally exploded at the post office. Was sore as hell on arrival, but did enjoy the scenery, plus the knowledge that I'm one tough mother fucker.
Physical activity is of major importance to staying healthy. Some people are always taking shortcuts, trying to do as little as possible. That road leads to death. Note: I DO NOT work out at the gym. That sort of thing can have its use, but working on the FARM (or similar type of work) is much better overall.
I used to drink soft drinks. I do not anymore, and it has been one of the best changes I ever made. The sugar is bad and will make you fat. The acidity destroys one's teeth. The caffeine intake, in quantity, is IMO unhealthy.
I eat a variety of pure and natural foods. Examples: whole milk, eggs, cheese, butter, wheat bread, bacon, homemade hamburger, homemade pizza, salad, baked potato, vegetables of all kinds, oatmeal, rice, beans, beef, chicken, fish. Yes, I add sugar and salt to flavor, and not to excess. I DO NOT eat processed junk like TV dinners, or load up on sweets or the substance euphemistically called "ice cream." I do eat these things on occasion, if called for, but not regularly.
I quit fast food restaurants like McDs, Burger King, Taco Bell. They're all garbage. The only "fast food" I eat these days is healthy stuff like authentic Mexican food from a family owned restaurant, or Chick-Fil-A, and in moderation because it's cheaper and better to eat home cooked meals at home.
I have a garden every year and am often eating fresh fruits and vegetables during the summer. I also can some things for winter, or make big batches of canned soup for eating over time.
I don't continually stuff myself with food. Some days I take a break and just drink milk, or water. I believe fasting is very important to long term health. The more I eat, the more active I am. The less active I am, the less I eat. Because I have muscle, and stay busy, and don't overeat, or eat JUNK, I don't get fat.
I drink a little (homemade) alcohol, but in moderation, and not daily. I also occasionally smoke homegrown tobacco, and frequently smoke home grown WEED.
I get a full night's rest, every night. This is of critical importance. I also refuse to work a stressful, shitty corporate job, preferring instead to be DIRT POOR rather than destroy my life, health, and sanity like that.
I don't take any medicine at all. I also don't ever get sick, period. The last time I ever got sick was over 25 years ago, when I was a boy.
90% of health advice from the mainstream is total bunk and is in fact purposely designed to KILL you. For example, veganism. Want to be a weak, unhealthy soyboy? Be a vegan.
I saw one guy on here commenting the other day about his vegan girlfriend who is in ill health, with serious problems including joints getting stiff and locking up, steadily going downhill. The idiot "doctors" had no advice other than "stop eating meat"--which is exactly the problem in the first place, but this guy didn't make the connection and was at his wit's end. Stay the hell away from these quacks!
Yes, I fully agree that the Western meat industry is horrible and evil, but the solution is to make friends with decent farmers and butchers who treat their animals humanely, not deprive yourself of vital nutrients.
In closing, let me share an anecdote with you I read the other day, which should help you understand humans and the world we live in a little better:
"Funny story: I have a friend who works for a social media influencer (with 1 million followers) who does health fitness. This person says she's vegan and does just yoga, pushing lots of powders, etc. She is in incredible shape and has a million women following her and wondering why they don't look like her, and they keep paying more to try. Well the big deception is she actually is keto/carnivore, and when doing her real workouts she is definitely not doing yoga.
She was elevated because she would push the agenda. The deception runs deep."
[+] [-] NikolaeVarius|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AutumnCurtain|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pwthornton|4 years ago|reply
It ended up being a great walk and way better than using a cab to retrieve our car. I had hemmed and hawed for awhile about how to get the car back, looking into car seat options in a cab, the bus, asking a friend for a ride, and then I looked it up and realized it was a safe, 1.5 mile walk.
There are so many advantages to being active and fit. One of them is that it makes your world seem smaller and more accessible.
[+] [-] sebow|4 years ago|reply
Any physical activity is good at the end of the day.For those who want a 'scientific' explanation: during movement (eg walking) the amygdala "turns off", and you become more relaxed, because that's responsible for emotions.For the rest,take it for granted: better pump for the entire day, you don't feel jittery after coffee, and you actually don't feel the need to eat as much.(as in frequency, you might want to eat more but fewer times during the day)
[+] [-] lkbm|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dundarious|4 years ago|reply
Although years of not stretching has led to regular achilles tendon pain now (at least I think that's the cause). I'm stretching and doing calf raises.
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] PragmaticPulp|4 years ago|reply
Most people, especially past a certain age, don’t run distances. A mile is a long distance to run for the average person (across all ages). We don’t need to gatekeep physical activity.
But fortunately you don’t need to be a runner to be active. Walking is substantially better than sitting.
[+] [-] newaccount2021|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] joelbondurant1|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] mrtri|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] hirundo|4 years ago|reply
More interesting would be "active enough for optimal health", since you can at least approach an objective definition of "optimal".
[+] [-] loeg|4 years ago|reply
> Respondents were classified as physically inactive if they responded “no” to the following question: “During the past month, other than your regular job, did you participate in any physical activities or exercises such as running, calisthenics, golf, gardening, or walking for exercise?”
It doesn't attempt to determine what an appropriate level to "protect health" is; that's pure editorialization on the part of the byline.
[+] [-] nicoburns|4 years ago|reply