As I’ve entered my 30s I’ve observed many of my peers who held this mentality already experiencing some decline from their unhealthy lifestyles. They make old man noises as they stand up and sit down, they can’t stand for more than a few minutes, and a short walk leaves them visibly tired.
You don’t have to decline in your 30s like that. Your body was made to move. Humans literally evolved to hunt animals by simply chasing them until the animal collapses from exhaustion. With a little bit of effort you can get that kind of stamina. Start taking walks regularly, maybe even run a little. Drink less soda and alcohol, reduce your sugar intake.
I spent the first half of my 20s a decaying lump that used the computer all day at work then drove home to use the computer all night at home, eating half a bag of candy in one sitting (aka about a dozen servings or more) then during the pandemic a coworker turned me on to a home workout routine that was appropriately communicated so even as a nerd who struggled to lift 40 lbs I could understand it. Working out regularly led me to improving my diet as my body started asking for better food. I lost the fitness habit when I went back to college, but I had already gotten to where I could manage my first pull-up ever in my late 20s (I’d literally never been able to manage a single pullup before) then two years ago I climbed into my bike for the first time in a decade with the goal of being able to do my kids school pickups and dropoffs by bike. I quickly found how out of shape I was and started biking every day. At first it was only 5-10 minutes a day because I could only manage one lap around the block, but slowly I got better. Soon I could go half a mile, a mile, 2 miles, 4 miles and finished the season almost able to bike 10 miles in a ride. This year I hit my next milestone of biking to the next town over and back (about a 22 mile round trip) and started doing school pickups and dropoffs by bike (and I’m literally the only parent doing so at my kids school!) oh and I still use the computer a lot but I’ve also started picking up other hobbies because I realized I don’t want to spend my entire life staring at screens. I picked up and lost a drawing habit, I’ve been reading a lot more and recently I’ve started picking model railroading back up as a hobby. I’m literally in the best shape of my life and feeling good. And I only make old man noises some of the time when sitting on the floor!
The point is, it is absolutely worth it to pick up some healthy habits and drop some unhealthy ones. The physical and psychological benefits are totally worth it. My whole body feels so much better to live in. Just start small. Maybe take a walk every day (seriously more people need to take walks around their neighborhoods, you’ll feel so much more connected with your community!) reducing/dropping soda and alcohol is also life changing. I know a couple of people who lost a ton of weight just by dropping soda and making no other dietary changes. You don’t realize how bad soda is until you take your first sip of soda in years and go “omg that’s way too much sugar how does anyone drink this?” Your body wasn’t evolved to drink litres of sugar-coated carbs and sit in chairs all day, and you’re not going to have a good time if that’s what you do. Making some small lifestyle tweaks can be completely life-changing and all for the better at that
I’m just going to say if a small number of people have these problems maybe its a “lifestyle choice” but if a lot of people have these problems its because society has made decisions to make bad choices easier than good ones. The big ones I’d say are:
too much overinvestment on roads and vehicles in the US before the 1950s people would be walking not driving. Offices existed before 1950 but 30 mile commutes did not.
decades of unnaffordable housing lead to higher transportation times
laws requiring giant parking lots make housing expensive and increase sprawl lead to car dependence
decades spent subsidizing shipping of goods over local supply creates bad incentives for processed foods
poor workers rights lead to low levels of free time to do things like cooking, dating, outdoor hobbies
gun violence, homelessness and sprawl have lead to decreased investment in free public spaces, more polluted waterways (I haven’t heard frogs in years
car accidences, poor working conditions, poor long term health care, relatively good emergency care, and gun violence lead to the US to be one of the most injured populations outside like war torn third world countries.
higher reliance on the internet has moved high paying jobs away from extremely rural jobs (historically it had been somewhat reversed with delivery and natural resource jobs being fairly high paying).
We like to pretend there’s a healthy way to live in modern society but imo its not realistic for everyone to do so and still pay rent.
I think some confusion over the post was that some people only eat crazy health food stuff. Never ever have a cocktail. Everyday they blend some ultra “supposedly” good for you shakes. If they ever ate a hamburger they would just die. In my opinion those people have taken the “healthy” lifestyle on as a religion.
The people I identify with eat healthy foods like chicken, and I don’t mean chicken nuggets. They limit their drinking to only a few days a week. They exercise at least an hour a day and I mean a real exercise like on a commercial grade elliptical or even an hour long bike ride. But they will occasionally have a dessert or a hamburger. They stay at their idea weight but continue to enjoy life.
That’s great, it sounds like we’re on a similar page! I think your post managed to hit a nerve because there is a definite number of people who once they finish college and land a decent job they just…decay. They work sitting in a chair then go home and do hobbies sitting in chairs, they don’t get any meaningful physical activity in any given week and they joke about how unhealthy their lifestyle is. It seemed to me and probably others that this was where this post came from was a place of joking about how badly you (the royal you, not necessarily you specifically) treat your body, and our society is really well setup for people to do this and for it to seem perfectly normal
As I’ve entered my 30s I’ve observed many of my peers who held this mentality already experiencing some decline from their unhealthy lifestyles. They make old man noises as they stand up and sit down, they can’t stand for more than a few minutes, and a short walk leaves them visibly tired.
You don’t have to decline in your 30s like that. Your body was made to move. Humans literally evolved to hunt animals by simply chasing them until the animal collapses from exhaustion. With a little bit of effort you can get that kind of stamina. Start taking walks regularly, maybe even run a little. Drink less soda and alcohol, reduce your sugar intake.
I spent the first half of my 20s a decaying lump that used the computer all day at work then drove home to use the computer all night at home, eating half a bag of candy in one sitting (aka about a dozen servings or more) then during the pandemic a coworker turned me on to a home workout routine that was appropriately communicated so even as a nerd who struggled to lift 40 lbs I could understand it. Working out regularly led me to improving my diet as my body started asking for better food. I lost the fitness habit when I went back to college, but I had already gotten to where I could manage my first pull-up ever in my late 20s (I’d literally never been able to manage a single pullup before) then two years ago I climbed into my bike for the first time in a decade with the goal of being able to do my kids school pickups and dropoffs by bike. I quickly found how out of shape I was and started biking every day. At first it was only 5-10 minutes a day because I could only manage one lap around the block, but slowly I got better. Soon I could go half a mile, a mile, 2 miles, 4 miles and finished the season almost able to bike 10 miles in a ride. This year I hit my next milestone of biking to the next town over and back (about a 22 mile round trip) and started doing school pickups and dropoffs by bike (and I’m literally the only parent doing so at my kids school!) oh and I still use the computer a lot but I’ve also started picking up other hobbies because I realized I don’t want to spend my entire life staring at screens. I picked up and lost a drawing habit, I’ve been reading a lot more and recently I’ve started picking model railroading back up as a hobby. I’m literally in the best shape of my life and feeling good. And I only make old man noises some of the time when sitting on the floor!
The point is, it is absolutely worth it to pick up some healthy habits and drop some unhealthy ones. The physical and psychological benefits are totally worth it. My whole body feels so much better to live in. Just start small. Maybe take a walk every day (seriously more people need to take walks around their neighborhoods, you’ll feel so much more connected with your community!) reducing/dropping soda and alcohol is also life changing. I know a couple of people who lost a ton of weight just by dropping soda and making no other dietary changes. You don’t realize how bad soda is until you take your first sip of soda in years and go “omg that’s way too much sugar how does anyone drink this?” Your body wasn’t evolved to drink litres of sugar-coated carbs and sit in chairs all day, and you’re not going to have a good time if that’s what you do. Making some small lifestyle tweaks can be completely life-changing and all for the better at that
I’m just going to say if a small number of people have these problems maybe its a “lifestyle choice” but if a lot of people have these problems its because society has made decisions to make bad choices easier than good ones. The big ones I’d say are:
We like to pretend there’s a healthy way to live in modern society but imo its not realistic for everyone to do so and still pay rent.
I think some confusion over the post was that some people only eat crazy health food stuff. Never ever have a cocktail. Everyday they blend some ultra “supposedly” good for you shakes. If they ever ate a hamburger they would just die. In my opinion those people have taken the “healthy” lifestyle on as a religion.
The people I identify with eat healthy foods like chicken, and I don’t mean chicken nuggets. They limit their drinking to only a few days a week. They exercise at least an hour a day and I mean a real exercise like on a commercial grade elliptical or even an hour long bike ride. But they will occasionally have a dessert or a hamburger. They stay at their idea weight but continue to enjoy life.
That’s great, it sounds like we’re on a similar page! I think your post managed to hit a nerve because there is a definite number of people who once they finish college and land a decent job they just…decay. They work sitting in a chair then go home and do hobbies sitting in chairs, they don’t get any meaningful physical activity in any given week and they joke about how unhealthy their lifestyle is. It seemed to me and probably others that this was where this post came from was a place of joking about how badly you (the royal you, not necessarily you specifically) treat your body, and our society is really well setup for people to do this and for it to seem perfectly normal