Many of us should certainly cut our calories. In fact, I'm hoping to have the discipline to do that again myself in about 2 weeks after the Christmas and New Years holidays are over and we are in the doldrum period between January 1, 2011 and the end of May (Memorial Day). Of course, for those with significant others, Valentine's Day may cause a small blip on the calorie line.
How drastically should we cut? Should we cut 10%, 20%, 30% or more? I don't have an answer to that. How much weight should we plan to lose? Should we get stick thin or should we keep a little padding that our bodies can use if we get really sick? I don't have an answer to that either! What I would say is don't cut so many calories that you feel lethargic or get sick; figure out where that line is. And, lose weight until you are comfortable doing all the things you do in your daily life and those things you couldn't do before because you were too fat. Stick thin signals mental or physical disorder to me.
On a closely-related note, I just received an email from a friend with the subject: "If You Were Born 1930-1979." I suspect you have all seen these emails at one time or another. This one lists all the things we did growing up in the 30's (well, not me) 40's (yes, me), 50's, 60's and 70's BEFORE the government started regulating everything we can do and before much of the technology of today was even a gleam in it's inventor's eye. The email talked about the young folks being outside much of the time running around playing all over the community - that's true - I was one of those young folks once upon a time in the late 40's and 50's so I know of what I speak. It we sat down, it was on a make believe horse as we charged around the field either chasing bad guys or escaping from good guys, depending which side you were playing at that moment. We skated in the winter time - on the creek or on the swampy area in our field that my father hand-dug out for us - it looked like a dumbbell - we enjoyed it greatly.
There was this one winter when I learned to tip my boots over and shake them before I put them on for the first time. It must have been a winter when my feet had pretty much stopped growing since I was putting on the same boots from the winter before. We always put our boots and winter jackets in the little alcove behind the kitchen door when we were done with them. The first time we needed them the following winter, I grabbed my boots and stuffed my feet into them. One wouldn't go in and I heard a crunch sound. That gave me pause so I yanked the boot off and turned it upside down; out fell a dead mouse. That was the last time I didn't check my boots before I put them on.
Ah, but I digress. I was talking about how things used to be. We also had no artificial food for the most part; oleo comes to mind as one of the first artificial food items. I looked it up just to make sure I remembered correctly and found something quite interesting (to me, at least):
From Wikipedia:
Oleo is a term for oils. It is commonly used to refer to a variety of things:
- Margarine
- Oleic acid
- Oleo (shock absorber), A type of shock absorbers on airplane landing gear
- Oleo (song), a bebop composition by Sonny Rollins
- Óleo, a city in the São Paulo state in Brazil
- GNU Oleo, a spreadsheet program
- Oleo (album), a 1962 album by jazz guitarist Grant Green
Most of the food we ate was 'real,' unadulterated good stuff: beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fresh or canned vegetables, milk, bread that wouldn't last a year without going stale because of additives like today (OK, I exaggerate a bit).
So, we ate 'real' good food and we got a substantial amount of exercise and the percentage of obese people was a whole lot lower than it is today. Disclaimer: I was one of the ones who did all these things and still managed to be obese - shucks!
Today, how many kids get off their butts and exercise regularly? Surely, not as many as years ago. As was noted in the email I mentioned above:
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's and X-boxes.
There were no video games,
no 150 channels on cable,
No video movies or DVD's,
no surround-sound or CD's,
No cell phones,
No personal computers,
no Internet and no chat rooms.
WE HAD FRIENDS And we went outside and found them!
There are lots of kids out playing sports today - true. But, there are even more who sit home on their butts using the aforementioned technology "stuff." Some of them don't even have healthy friendships/relationships with other kids! They are too busy texting, video gaming, etc.
As I was reading the above-mentioned email, an old TV episode came to mind. I do not remember whether it was Star Trek or Twilight Zone (if anyone knows and knows the episode title, please let me know). I don't remember the story line; I just remember the hero(s) arriving on some other planet to find a table with a whole bunch of talking heads on it (not the rock band). These were the heads of brilliant people who looked just like humans (at least their heads did). They were the smartest and the best on their planet. But, they forgot one thing: exercise! They were so busy doing their brilliant thinking to the exclusion of all else that the completely lost the use of their bodies and eventually the bodies themselves. And, they regretted that!
While the old TV show episode was completely made up, I wonder what prompted the creators of that episode to think along those lines. Perhaps they were the brilliant thinkers of their time. If that's so, I doubt very much if they sat still and let their own bodies atrophy. I bet they at least exercised!
If one wanted to be a little weird, I'll bet there is one thing that would get our young people exercising again and probably not eating as much as they do. That is this. I am certainly not wanting to go back to the dark ages. I'm just saying it would certainly change EVERYTHING.
As for me, I currently continue to eat too much. As I mentioned above, I'm planning to change that in the new year. That's not a resolution, mind you; I don't believe in resolutions because most of us fail to keep them for long. Just what I know I need to do for my own health. I do currently work out 3 mornings a week in a "Senior Boot Camp" which we've named "The Sweating Sweeties." If I had my way, I'd be like the young folks of today and sit on my butt in front of my computer or my TV but I know the end of that story so I make myself get to the gym. If you are not doing that today, perhaps you can make a resolution or a non-resolution and start exercising and eating right in the new year. Maybe I'll see you at the gym!
Blessings,
Mary
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