Ya, I’m totally exercise-pilled. How much do you exercise? What do you do?
I’ve done a lot of different things over the years but am mostly working on runs less than a few miles and increasing my quality of movement through light exercise.
I’m all for any of those ideas that you’re discussing and we could even try them all out. Some enticements may work for different segments of the population, but I honestly doubt anything will work for MOST of the population. Something tangentially related I’ve read about is Radio taisō in Japan but it’s not incentivized beyond just having a healthier life. The page mentions some other countries with similar offerings which may be worth reading up on.
Yeah humans as a whole don’t seem to be made to do well with unlimited access to food and in particular modern foods.
World has changed a lot, one my long deceased relatives was a dietician for about a million years and went from dealing with assuring access to food supplies preventing rickets/pellegra/goiter and maternal malnutrition to ending career in quasi modern type 2 diabetes education. Two very different worlds in one state over a career
This is so true. 90% of everything in a standard grocery store, or even a Trader Joe’s, consists of items that should not be on a healthy person’s plate. And we haven’t even discussed most of what’s on the menu when dining out.
To avoid it all requires a monumental amount of willpower.
To put things in perspective, no matter how fat we are now we are way healthier in terms of life expectancy, disease prevention etc than we have ever been.
You are not wrong, but that approach has been tried billions of times and almost universally fails. As indicated, there will likely be a billion people with diabetes by 2050. The fact that active lifestyle and healthy eating would solve the problem doesn’t seem to be solving the problem.
I was doing Orangetheory fitness pre-covid and was up to like 80 classes and feeling pretty fit. I worked out at home for while under Covid but basically haven’t done crap for the last 3 years. 1.5 months ago I started Orangethory again and have gone to 25 classes so far and am feeling a lot better, more energy, better attitude, lower blood glucose, and probably increased cognitive function. If such results could be purchased they would be worth a good chunk of annual income–it’s relatively cheap if you just do the damn thing.
I think Orangetheory and other fitness classes are the best approach because, at least for me, it’s much “stickier” than having to decide to exercise every day, there’s the social “pressure” of class so you don’t slack too hard, and all the thought is offloaded to the coaches. It’s not all gung ho, my classes have old ladies, total studs, fat asses, quite a range.
My father is one of those people. Did exercise but also smoked cigarettes and/or weed for his entire adult life. Had an insatiable sweet tooth and munchies (see weed above), was normal sized when I was young but ballooned in weight in middle/older age.
And now walks around with half of a right foot because he had to have his toes amputated. If another “event” occurs he’ll no longer have half of his leg.
He’s since changed his habits (except for the weed) but unfortunately it’s about 30 years too late.
Watching all this unfold over the past several years is all the motivation I need to not repeat his mistakes.
I very much want to avoid any complications such as that, or kidney disease, or reduced heart health, or degenerative neuropathy, etc. From my research, the best approach is an hour of elevated heart rate exercise 3-4 times a week, but it’s really hard to force people to exercise regularly unless they have a “come to Jesus” shift in mindset. The good thing about exercise is that it is self-reinforcing, in that you literally feel better, both immediately after and over time. However, it kinda has to be your number 1 or 2 priority, and lots of people are juggling lots of priorities. Hell, I have a project to finish today, and I’ll have to finish it this evening because I signed up for a 6:30 class. That would be harder to do if I had kids to pickup/feed and a boss to answer to, etc.
And, btw, I probably wouldn’t have anything like my current healthcare, at least for under $1500/mo, without Obamacare. If Trump wins and they take that away it’s going to be fuckign PITA.
100% this. On my weekends I cook fairly healthy food. During the week working my lunches consist of garbage and then whatever is easy after i get home. Its laziness to some extent but finding the motivation to make sure you eat well is a ton harder when you are tired, stressed and have less free time.
Absolutely. Add on to that that shittier, more processed food is more profitable, so it’s no wonder it gets pushed on us nonstop. And I think these considerations are missing from takes like these:
Building healthy habits and living a healthy life that doesn’t require pharma assists is something humans have been doing since their existence, so I think it’s unfair to say the approach has been tried and almost universally fails. It almost universally fails within the modern era, and our capitalist hellscape probably has a lot to do with that.
I think this is a pretty spicy take, people were perpetually fighting the potential for death from disease, starvation or injury so yeah those left standing were in pretty good shape but not sure it’s an endorsement for that sort of living
now