"Clean" living vs. "dirty" living

LauraMax

LauraMax

Cathlete
I was gonna use the term "hard living" rather than "dirty living," but I think the latter is more appropriate.

I think sometimes it's difficult for us to conceptualize the benefits of our healthy lifestyles. It was really brought home to me yesterday when I saw a friend the same age as I am who I hadn't seen for about 2 years. He owns a bar. It's a family business he inherited so it was pretty much running itself when he took over the operation.

Well, I was just shocked at his appearance. While we're the same age, he looks about 10 years older than I do & has aged tremendously since I last saw him. The bar is in a basement & he works busy nights from about 4 pm to 2 am, mostly just to press the flesh. He's a heavy drinker & smoker, & obviously eats quite a bit of his business's food--primarily fried stuff & other bar food. His skin is yellowed, dry looking & wrinkly. He's overweight but not in a pleasantly plump way--he almost looks underweight & definitely looks sickly b/c his skin is so sallow & saggy. His teeth are yellow & brown--it appears he doesn't care much for oral hygiene. I pitied him, which is a feeling I hope no one EVER has for me.

His father, who lived a similar lifestyle, died of a heart attack 3 years ago at age 65.

I'm posting this as a little motivator for all of us. It made me feel so thankful I'm obsessed w/fitness instead of w/partying. It made me realize in a real-life kind of way what we get from being disciplined & not giving in to all those temptations constantly being waved in our faces.

Keep up the good work ladies! :)
 
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Laura, you're full of interesting threads this week! :)

I agree with you. I have many cousins a number of years younger than I am that look about ten years older. They are not even party people really, it's just endless bad lifestyle choices, from the wrong men to all processed food, all the time, to absolutely no exercise. I don't judge them, I just feel bad for them.

I think people have such an "either or" attitude about it as well, they see a healthy lifestyle as something that sucks the fun out of life, or is too much work. They don't yet know that healthy living does not mean life like a Stoic.

I also think mental fitness is important as well, inner peace, meditation, reducing anxiety, all that high-falutin' stuff. :)

Sparrow


"The winds of grace are always blowing but it's you who must raise your sail." - Sri Ramakrishna
 
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I think it's true that we sometimes don't realize just how much a healthy lifestyle benefits us until we look at those who don't follow one (especially if we are usually interacting with those who do).

Our former secretary used to be a good 'negative motivation' for me. I'd look at her: 50+ pounds overweight, unable to walk more than a few yards without huffing an puffing, diabetic (several times, she had proudly stated that she wasn't diabetic, then later found out she was. Her way of dealing with it?: Take a pill, so she could continue eating the food that contributed to her condition in the first place), and that would be a good motivation for me to keep up my healthy habits.

I was in Walmart yesterday, and I swear 80% or more of the people I saw there were unhealthily overweight. And some of the ones that weren't overweight didn't look all that healthy.
 
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I don't have to look any further than my own DX. No vegetables, no exercise, no contemplative self-awareness, nothing. He takes an incredible amount of prescription stuff just to keep up and running.

I'm mostly trying to be fit for my own self, and the more I do it the more it feeds itself - in the desire for whole and healthy foods, the pull towards working out, the efforts to create a calm and healthy space. But, I have kids who need to see what a healthy lifestyle looks like too so I do it for them as well.
 
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>I don't have to look any further than my own DX. No
>vegetables, no exercise, no contemplative self-awareness,
>nothing. He takes an incredible amount of prescription stuff
>just to keep up and running.

That reminds me of something I read recently: by the age of 45 (or somewhere around there: I didn't pay that much attention to the stat), the vast majority of Americans are on at least on prescription drug. (I don't even have NON-perscription drugs, like asprin or ibuprofen, around the house right now).


>>I'm mostly trying to be fit for my own self, and the more I do it the more it feeds itself - in the desire for whole and healthy foods, the pull towards working out, the efforts to create a calm and healthy space.

I think there is definitely a synergistic relationship between all elements of a healthy lifestyle. They help support each other.

The same is true of an unhealthy lifestyle. The former secretary I mentioned before 'couldn't' exercise because it felt bad, then had to have shoulder surgery (not from overuse, but from an injury that she might not have sustained had she had stronger, more flexible muscles). She tried to lose weight by going on diets (drinking only Slim-fast-type crap shakes for a few days...then going out to eat a huge megaburger, with piles of mashed potatoes and butter. She was about to try phen-fen/fen-phen? when it was pulled off the market).
 
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I look around and am so sad to see how many young kids, little kids, preteen and teenagers are overweight and don't care! :-( They wear today's clothes that show all this chub hanging out all over and think it is attractive (dare I say sexy! :-( ) Very sad, because to me it looks so unhealthy and if these kids are overweight and unhealthy at such a young age how are they going to learn to be healthy. It will be even harder to lose that weight later too.

I try to stay healthy and exercise and eat reasonably clean in part to be a good example to my girls. I also try not to go overboard because I don't want them to go overboard and think only of working out and eating only certain things.

Good reminder!

Mary
 
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Isn't that sad. I would never earn a living that way, because there is so much temptation. I would have sold the business and bought education to do something terrific in life.

I guess priorities are so different with each individual. It's truly sad to hear about people living unhealthy. I can't imagine what they are thinking. Maybe they are stuck in some way. Can think of a million things why he can't get it together, but perhaps, Oh I don't know...(head down shaking side to side) he's got to be just stuck.

I am so very grateful to have the life I'm living. It can't get any better than this.

I can only hope that individuals can somehow get unstuck and live the lives they were meant to live. But then again perhaps he is living the life he is suppose to. I can talk about philosophy all day and still not come up with a "why" or an "answer". It sometimes makes you want to reach out to them. Maybe that is their purpose, to soften our hearts.

I'm getting nowhere with this, sorry.

Janie

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The idea is to die young as late as possible.
 
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It catches up to us in our 40's. I knew a lot of hard-partying people in my 20's and 30's that could do that and still look good and (seem to) feel good. You sure can't say that now. By 40, if you are neglecting your body it really shows, inside and out.
 
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Hello Laura.

I work with the public and I see folks my age all the time, some of them look young and fit and some look almost 60, and I'm 46.

What you do when you're younger, you will pay for it or benefit from it when you're older.

Great post, glad you're here!!
 
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OK I have an update that gives perspective on the other extreme.

There's this guy at my gym who's 60 YO if he's a day. I've known him for years & noticed he trains pretty hard for his age but I've never paid close attention.

Yesterday he was exercising next to me & pulled his shirt up to wipe his face or something & OMG this guy is TOTALLY RIPPED!!!!!! I mean, he makes Jack Lalanne look like a sissy!

I have no idea how old he is--for all I know he's 80 & looks 60 b/c he's in such amazing shape. Here's hoping that's me in 40 years! :p
 
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