exercise and die a healthier person!
Some time ago I went to a conference on Alzheimer's...and one of the
pieces of research suggested clearly that one of the best things you can
do for increasing direct and indirect resiliency against Alzheimer's
(apart from not having a certain gene which increases your chances of
getting it) is exercise.
Exercise is good. Personally, I don't like exercising for health's
sake, really (as in "necessary chore" mind). At this point, since I've
been "exercising" (training?) almost daily since I was wee it's just
FUN, a part of my life. I thought I was pretty set on my perspective
about it, but really appreciated a side comment/joke made by someone at
the Alzheimer's conference. During a piece on exercise, the trainer
said, jokingly,
"Exercise...and die a healthier person!"
That's a key line to me. In a world where lots of folks are engaging in
lifestyle activism, eating organic, taking weird pills, it's important
to remember you're STILL gonna die. And, potentially die, in some pain
and sickness. That is, eating well, sleeping on a hypoallergenic
bed...whatever, doesn't mean you're not going to get really sick and
die. Maybe you'll be "lucky" and die in your sleep...but maybe you
won't, in spite of a lifetime of exercise, eating healthy, not smoking,
whatever.
However, I'm not bashing eating healthy, exercise, etc. They've got
great benefits that increase, often dramatically, one's moment to moment
quality of life. That's good! But the idea of it being effective
protection against the vicissitudes of life is just not true.
Whenever someone suggests that I'll live longer and happier engaging in
all this healthy stuff (which I STILL do, for other reasons), I think of
Suzuki Roshi, who just turned 100 and lives on Cold Mountain. I've
heard rumor he's the happiest, most baby-faced person those who met him
have met...after a lifetime of extreme simplicity, a shit-ton (metric)
of just sitting, and probably NOT the fanciest food.
He probably kept a pretty healthy lifestyle, too...but I doubt he used a
lot of moolah and fancy skin products to protect his body against life.
Food for thought, to me.
posted by Mike Dolan Fliss at
3/23/2008 11:46:00 AM
1 Comments:
I enjoyed your trainer's line, and it's true. I"ve also noticed that if you live long enough, you'll get skinny. Ever see a fat 95 year old?
I also think it's funny how we say that somebody died in their sleep. Really, we don't know for sure. They died in OUR sleep. We were asleep, we assume they were. We wake up, they didn't.
I try to remember to play. Kids (healthy kids not plunked in front of a Play Station) just play. They ride bikes, play dodge ball, climb trees, tumble down hills. Sure beats the "work" of exercise.
I do have to admit that when I put Fergie on my ipod and go for a walk, it only takes a few steps until exercise becomes play.
I often think of the line my yoga teacher said as I was in a pretzel position (accurate, yogi term, I'm sure) and I equate it to caring for my mom who had ALzheimer's and Parkinson's.
She said,
"If you think this is really, really hard--that's because--it is!"
Caregiving in a nutshell.
~Carol D. O'Dell
Author of Mothering Mother: A Daughter's Humorous and Heartbreaking Memoir
available on Amazon
www.mothering-mother.com
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