Fat, Drunk and Stupid is No Way to Go Through Life, Son.
Something like 40% of Americans are obese, and that number is expected to be higher soon. According to John Hopkins, 56% of Americans ages 18-25 are obese. Adding some middle-aged weight or post-retirement pounds has always been common, but now obesity is an epidemic affecting the youth. 20% of young men and 40% of young women are too fat to join the military.
7% of Americans think chocolate milk comes from brown cows, and according to the Pew Research Center 24% of Americans haven’t read a book in a year. Most haven’t read anything since they were required to in high school. About 54% of Americans can’t read above a 6th grade level, and 21% of Americans are illiterate.
College isn’t making it better either. About 39% of Americans have a college degree, but a lot of those degrees are meaningless. What’s worse, is they cost a lot. So we have a bunch of credentialed people that can’t think, and they can’t earn. They’re stuck with a huge debt, yet they lack the intellectual skills to pay it. Many that I’ve met are bitter about this. Many also believe they know more than they do. This is oftentimes a function of technology-augmented knowledge like Google and an education in how to string together impressive sounding, magic words. A lot of graduates talk a lot but never communicate anything.
There is tremendous value in a classical education steeped in Aristotle, Rosseau, statistics and astronomy. It enriches our lives. It makes it possible for us to engage with the world in a meaningful way. Moreover, it helps us to find meaning in the world. It can even make us marketable. Being a citizen no longer carries with it the duties of being a well-read, well-rounded and well-adjusted person. Life is better when you are. Knowing how systems operate, how policies are formed, and how to think critically are more valuable today than ever before. It’s a superpower. In a world where more people know what powers the starship Enterprise (dilithium crystals) than what powers a nuclear reactor (uranium), having some smarts makes life better. It’s more fun and more navigable. It also pays. Educated people earn considerably more in what has become a knowledge economy.
College isn’t required to get this education. Discipline is. The internet is often wasted to feed our base desires, but it has also made it possible to get an education, for free that used to cost us thousands at a University. All we need is to want it. To want it we need to understand why we would want to know things.
Being fit is the same. Life is harder when you are unable to do basic things, and it is also a predictor of how long we can live. Not only that, but it can predict how well we can live in advanced years. The European Journal of Preventative Cardiology published an abstract about a simple test that was getting up off the floor. The fewer limbs and movements to get up were scored higher. The better people did directly correlated to longevity. Each unit measured that showed men could get up from the floor with less effort lead to a 21% improvement in survival. That’s huge. Yet, we all know people in their 30s who can’t get up off the floor without using a couch or something to pull themselves to their feet.
Grip strength is the same. This is a true biomarker of mobility and longevity. It’s simple. More muscle mass we build and carry into advanced age, the more likely it is we can live on our own and function well. The converse is true too. Being fat isn’t good. This has nothing to do with beauty, although Aristotle would tell you it’s the moral good to “desire the desirable,” so fit is sexy, when sexy means long life and better mating opportunities. It’s something we should aspire to attain.
Extra chub makes for extra problems. More fit makes life more fun. Once I was in beautiful Nice, France and recall talking to a shop owner who was talking to a 20s something, American woman who stayed behind on a day trip because she was too obese and incapable of walking more than a few blocks. This is the real travesty of obestity: it robs us of enjoying life. Not only does obesity increase things like diabetes and shorten life, but it makes life more difficult to enjoy.
The RNT believes that we are all our own first responders. When things go sideways, being fit is essential. Escaping a car accident, being capable of handing the ocean intelligently, running when gunshots at a mall or other public place ring out, and being able to deal with life is what we’re all about. Modern life has brought modern comforts. Modern comforts have made us dumb and weak. We don’t have to use our big super computer between our ears because we can “google that” or use mapping software to find where we are going. We can get away with being physically incapable of walking a flight of stairs because our world permits us to work at desks, in air conditioned offices, ride elevators and avoid any physical strain. While these things are great, they are also robbing us of our potential. It is making us sick, weak and easy to manipulate. Modern comforts are stealing our abilities evolution and our ancestors bequeathed to us. With a cellphone most of us don’t remember phone numbers anymore, or much of anything else, and we abandon our true nature. By nature, we are highly intelligent, resilient and adaptive animals.
We can unleash our potential when we do it all. Enjoy the technology that softens our minds and bodies in a way that augments our intellect and bodies. Text in yogi squats. Park at the far end of the lot and walk to your destination. Work in to your life ways to use your body and brain more and the benefits are almost immediate. This is all free. None of us have extra time, so if we use what we have we maximize it. I once read that Michelle Yeo does squats brushing her teeth. She just turned 60, still looks 30 and performs athletics at an elite level.
We have everything we need to think and move better. Some easy, quick and actionable things for you to up your game:
read 15 pages a day, preferably something in print because it has less distractions;
incorporate walking into your routine. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk whenever possible;
burpees. A habitual felon in prison for life once told me that was all he needed to stay fit for the inevitable violence of prison life. He did 300 a day, which is a lot, but he also has some time on his hands and idle energy to use;
eat the rainbow. The world is your medicine. Eat every color of berry, vegetable, fruit and lean meats; and
be grateful. We live at a time where we can effortlessly live three times longer than when our ancestors that had to scrap for opportunities and calories. It’s all here for us.
Life with a clear mind and capable body is true wealth and freedom.