Is there anything worse than doing something that we think is really good for us, but is actually bad? An excellent example takes us back to the early 1800's.
Our first president, George Washington, became ill. The type of illness was unknown, but the solution was clear – he needed to be bled. The “bad” blood had to be removed from his body so he could heal. Bleeding was done either by leaches or at the barber and was done numerous times in an effort to make him well. Some say it’s what eventually caused his death.
This is an egregious example of what I mean by a distraction. We direct our energies at doing something, in the name of health and/or fitness, which is either worthless or deleterious. Below are a few examples:
- We are told to drink lots of water so we carry an “ever present water bottle”
- We park the car at the end of the lot so we can get a couple extra steps in
- We take the stairs
- We are told to stand while talking on the phone
- We throw out the healthiest part of the egg, the yolk.
- We eat processed junk that’s called a “health bar”
My point is that we only have so many bullets in our figurative gun. Many of these are fairly harmless, but they give us a false sense of security, the notion that we’re doing something good for ourselves. Essentially, we’re losing focus on doing legitimate activities that are actually productive. Therefore, the phrases “it can’t hurt you” or “I just want to move my muscles” is actually a distraction from positive endeavors.
Overall, what we need to do is sift through the chafe and the noise of silliness. Decide on a few steps and then be rigidly disciplined about following them. From an exercise standpoint, we should focus on quality over quantity. It should be brief, intense, and then we should rest.
From a diet standpoint, we should eat whole, unprocessed foods with few ingredients.
I’ll close with a personal anecdote. A few years ago, I was playing golf with a fellow who I had just met. He looked to be about 20 pounds overweight and subsequently, I found out he had had a bi-pass. When the drink cart came around, I was trying to find something healthy by asking a few questions. The gentleman I was playing with asked me, “do you watch your diet?” and I said “yes, do you?” He said, “no, but I run.” So, since he’s doing this “distraction” called running, of course in the name of health, he doesn’t have to do anything that is ACTUALLY healthy, like eating right. I don’t even want to say what he had for lunch.
