Getting In Shape

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RSteve

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I mentioned in another thread that I went to a MN Twins baseball game last Sunday. Since about February, 2020, I've pretty much stayed away from crowds. Being in a large crowd literally stunned my senses. I've read over and over again how overweight the American public is; some figures cited are 40% of the population is morbidly obese. I could not believe my eyes how many really, really fat people were at that ballgame. I have my own brand of selective perception, but I think the percentage of obese women I saw far exceeds the percentage of men.
I'm going to drop 15 lbs. as fast as my body will allow it.

Incidentally, at the ballpark a hamburger is $15.00; 16 oz. bottle of water $7.00. One of the guys with whom I went to the game ate three burgers w/fries and a beer with each burger; figured he spent $100 on chow.

While I'm thinking about the ballgame: We took the lite rail to the ballpark. In Mps-St.Paul if you have a service connected V.A. Health I.D., you ride free. It wasn't checked until we got off the train. There was no security check entering the ballpark; no metal detector, no body scan, etc. Anyone could have entered the ballpark carrying a concealed firearm.
On the train, there were many people sleeping. It's become a homeless encampment. There was no security on the train.
 
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A relative of mine, who isn't in the greatest shape themselves, and who regularly frequents Sam's Club, surprisingly said something about how many obese people they saw the last time they went to Sam's Club. I can't imagine that was a unique experience, but rather that they noticed it for some reason.

I remember when living in Minneapolis many years ago, they talked about penalizing vehicles by weight, as they do more damage to roads, greater environmental impact, etc. Your license tabs were going to cost more if your vehicles weighed more. People lost their mind. It was going to kill small business. People had the right to drive SUVs and big trucks. etc. It didn't go anywhere from what I can remember. While this was dying on the vine, I wondered why they didn't just re-word it so people with smaller vehicles were rewarded in some way. Fine, don't penalize the big vehicles, but reward the smaller vehicles.

I wonder this same thing about health. Fine, we can't attack individual rights by penalizing those who don't take care of themselves, but can't we reward those who do? There are obviously a lot of variables that go into health, including things some people cannot do anything to change. I get that. Empathy to that. But by definition, aren't these exceptions? I don't think it is smart to base things on exceptions. Exceptions can't limit the world, or define the world. So if you can pass tests or blood analysis #s or some set of metrics, why can't we reward those people in some way? Tax credits? Health insurance credits? Heck, even enter them into a lottery for a million dollars? Something? I don't have the answers for this, but I'd like to see a discussion where it is blunt and positive about health and the costs of certain choices we make. In short, we have to find some way to significantly incentivize health. If for no other reason, for economics.
 
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Zeno, I like your remarks as to "rewarding" health behaviors. However, in a country founded on "Liberty and Freedom" it's dang hard to tell/mandate certain things to certain people. "The costs of certain choices we make" drive health care providers/payers crazy! Besides the earlier discussion on the "jab" situation (we all know the costs there; we are living it today!!), there are other behaviors that many resist changing due to the "you can't tell me what to do, I'm a free person!). Case in point...motorcycle riders who chose not to wear a helmet (just an example, my motorcycle riding friends!!). No helmet, have an "accident," head gets beat up with extensive brain damage. Should insurance pay for all the massive costs incurred by a "choice" made by the rider? Same situation for a car driver who causes an "accident" while messing around with a dang cell phone! I don't know how far we as a society can take the "choices we make" discussion; nor do I know how to apply it reasonably and fairly. Makes for a great discussion over several beers and bowls though!!!!! FTRPLT
 
However, in a country founded on "Liberty and Freedom" it's dang hard to tell/mandate certain things to certain people.
I'm no Constitutional scholar, but as I questioned earlier, don't liberty and freedom come with implied nuance and with context? In other words, aren't they communal things, as well as applied to the individual? A nation is people, not a person. Christianity and capitalism are based on me, myself, and I, but things like freedom to assemble, as a first amendment and not a second or third etc amendment, implies group voice and responsibility, correct? Not rhetorical. I'm genuinely curious. When individualism is taken to steroid levels, can you have a healthy community? Or when it reaches a level of fundamentalism, is Rome inevitable and the fall of the state? You know...like all things in the universe, a balance must be acknowledged and struck. Or maybe we just cut off our nose to spite our face. Long term vs short term, and all that jazz.
 
Same situation for a car driver who causes an "accident" while messing around with a dang cell phone! I don't know how far we as a society can take the "choices we make" discussion; nor do I know how to apply it reasonably and fairly. Makes for a great discussion over several beers and bowls though!!!!! FTRPLT
In MN, on the highways, when there's an accident, the highway patrol has the right to check the drivers' cell phones to establish clear liability if there's the possibility of a charge for distracted driving. If there's a fatality and there's clear evidence that the liable driver was using a phone for texts or was speaking on the phone in a manner which is not hands free, they very likely will be charged with negligent homicide, just as they'd be charged if causing a fatality while driving impaired by alcohol or drugs.
 
A relative of mine, who isn't in the greatest shape themselves, and who regularly frequents Sam's Club, surprisingly said something about how many obese people they saw the last time they went to Sam's Club. I can't imagine that was a unique experience, but rather that they noticed it for some reason.
I made a quick stop at Aldi's yesterday to just pick up a couple of items. In the store shopping was a young woman, mid 30s, with a slim body that clearly said, "I eat right and exercise." She literally had two carts filled to the brim with food, a lot looking like packaged junk that would never cross her lips. We were side by side packing our groceries after paying. I commented, "I'm glad I don't have to put all your groceries away." She was quick to reply, "I work for Insta-Cart. I pick, pack, and deliver for other people. There's very little that I'm packing that I would buy for myself. This only really bothers me when I deliver to a house with kids."
 
With "Liberty and Freedom" also comes "Responsibility!!" Unfortunately, way to many folk chose to forget that!! A little "Duty, Honor, Country" might help the situation! As to what Zeno alluded..."Your rights end where my nose begins!!" FTRPLT
 
My wife and I volunteer 2 days a week at the VA hospital here in Prescott. It really amazes me how many folks who come.through are seriously overweight. Not just the vets getting treatment but many of the staff. I see a lot of younger women who are quite hefty, and these are people in the health field who you think would be more conscious of the negative effects of carrying around extra poundage. However, this thread has renewed my vow to lose the extra 20 pounds I gained during the Covid shutdown. So, off to the gym I go, lol.
 
My wife and I volunteer 2 days a week at the VA hospital here in Prescott. It really amazes me how many folks who come.through are seriously overweight. Not just the vets getting treatment but many of the staff. I see a lot of younger women who are quite hefty, and these are people in the health field who you think would be more conscious of the negative effects of carrying around extra poundage.
The "sex symbols" of the day, like the Kardashians, who are setting the new standards, make for some truly unhealthy paradigms, both physically and then the corresponding mental side. I realize I'm imprisoned by my own teenage standard setting period, when athletic bodies were the aspiration, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out why someone with a giant, disproportional buttocks would be the desired body type. Forget that I find it unattractive, but purely on a health note, why would you want to have that body type? This is one of the ways I think the left is getting it wrong. Body shaming not cool. Bullying over body types is not cool. Acceptance and empathy are cool. HOWEVER, to push the pendulum up the other side where there is full-on advocation for unhealthy body types is screwy. As Bill Maher said in different words, if you can't tell an obese nation, during a pandemic that is proven to feed on extra pounds, to use the time to lose some weight and get in better shape, then when exactly is a good time to tell people to get healthy?
 
My wife and I volunteer 2 days a week at the VA hospital here in Prescott.
I think that takes a very strong mind and sense of duty. A few years ago, I tried, but kept encountering the veterans with whom I met while on the Agent Orange task force. It dragged me down emotionally, beyond description. Most were dealing with both cancer and prolonged chemical abuse. How many times did I say to myself, "There, but for the grace of God...?"
I can only speak for myself and the Vietnam Veterans with whom I have engaged during the previous five decades.
We are often treated with minimum respect by the governmental institutions that were established to provide for our health, safety, and in many cases rehabilitation.
 
I cannot figure out why someone with a giant, disproportional buttocks would be the desired body type.
Ah hah...Zeno's been checkin' out some booty.
I am 100% against body shaming. I am also a firm advocate of mandatory physical education (not recess) and nutrition education in all public schools. A healthy body doesn't have to look like an MMA fighter. I think every school kid should have mandatory cooking classes.
 
I think that takes a very strong mind and sense of duty. A few years ago, I tried, but kept encountering the veterans with whom I met while on the Agent Orange task force. It dragged me down emotionally, beyond description. Most were dealing with both cancer and prolonged chemical abuse. How many times did I say to myself, "There, but for the grace of God...?"
I can only speak for myself and the Vietnam Veterans with whom I have engaged during the previous five decades.
We are often treated with minimum respect by the governmental institutions that were established to provide for our health, safety, and in many cases rehabilitation.
I think the same thing quite often. When I see vets come in younger than me with serious medical issues it makes me grateful that I am in reasonably good health.
 
I think the same thing quite often. When I see vets come in younger than me with serious medical issues it makes me grateful that I am in reasonably good health.
I'm now in the midst of my late 70s and, by choice, take no medications other than low dose sildenafil which seems to keep my benign prostate hyperplasia in check. My normal blood pressure is 128/68. My LDL number could be better but my body reacts poorly to statins, so no Lipitor for me.
My best weight is from 155 to 161. Right now, I'm laboring around 175-180, and I feel like I have a gut. I'm hoping that if I can get down to 160, some of my sleep issues will resolve.
 
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