Quick Fix or Right Thing?
Posted under: Some of you may already know that I have a keen interest in health. After losing a lot of extra weight, Mr. Moore and I got into a home workout and health program called P90X.
Their most recent newsletter had an article that really hit home for me, so I want to share it with you. Although p90X is a fitness regime, this particular article is broad enough that its hard-hitting wisdom can apply to any area of life where improvement is desired.
Two Excerpts:
We have become the United States of Quick Fixes.
Why are we so addicted to shortcuts, tricks, and magic potions? Far too many people in this country live in some kind of wannabe fantasyland. We’re trying to keep up with the Joneses without working as hard as they do. This bigger, badder, and faster world doesn’t give us an opportunity to stop and look at real and authentic ways to achieve greatness.
and
Why do we reach for drugs, alcohol, sex, food, lies, blame, anger, hate, guilt, and self-pity far more often than power, courage, discipline, forgiveness, wisdom, and self-reliance?
The Full Article
Healthiness is a lifestyle choice, the way I see it. If you want to be healthy, your regular routine has to reflect it. Quick fixes or programs probably won’t work in the long run, since regularly made poor health choices will negate those fixes over time. Getting fit after 30 days will mean nothing if you keep going to Burger King after day 31.
But I would like to think that the good programs are the ones that ingrain the idea of a healthier lifestyle beyond the lifespan of the program itself. “We’ve done what we can, now the rest is up to you!”
.-= krizzlybear´s last blog ..Fashion Show- Steampunk Powers Hetalia =-.
@Krizzlybear
Definitely.
Nice brief article, and inspiring too. I see the author’s point about the US becoming lazy and a bunch of complainers, but we really brought it on ourselves didn’t we? Since the industrial revolution we’ve been all about how to make things easier for ourselves, using technology and machines to do our work. And really women entering the workplace had a lot to do with that also. We work lots of hours and have little time for anything else. People rarely cook anymore, hardly anyone grows their own food, so the convenience foods have made us all fatter. America needs to take back its diet from the Industrial food system.
Michael Pollan’s books are fantastic and an eye opener.
I feel like I have a great handle on my diet, it is just finding the time to exercise that becomes my challenge. I realized that going to the gym only twice a week wasn’t doing anything for me, and that I would have to make exercise part of my daily routine. As Bob Greene says “exercise is not negotiable.” My goal is to go five days a week, to get up in the morning and work out first without even thinking about it and as natually as brushing my teeth.
@Daria
We’ve absolutely built a world where it’s easier and cheaper to be unhealthy than healthy.
I think we’re seeing the start of a turnaround on that score, though, as more and more folks start to realize just how bad things are. (I’m a Pollyanna, I hold out hope).
Making exercise a habit is definitely difficult. Changing diet is, in SOME ways, easier because I really love the foods I am eating now and Mr. Moore and I cook together, as a family activity.
Without a specific activity that is fun for its own sake (like rock climbing or the like) working out is work. That doesn’t make it any less necessary, though. =] We try to at least go for a long walk in the evenings, even if we don’t feel up to a solid workout.
Completely off-topic:
Quite a long time ago (back in college, methinks), you asked me to try and make a furred “spirit mask” for you. Still interested? I’m going to attempt a furred Wilder mask sometime in the future, and if you’d like I could try a Kuna one, or something else entirely!
@Wilder
Ah, thank you for the offer, but I will decline. I don’t have room to properly store or display such a thing, and no cause at all to wear it. But thank you!