As I’ve entered my 30s I’ve observed many of my peers who held this mentality already experiencing some decline from their unhealthy lifestyles. They make old man noises as they stand up and sit down, they can’t stand for more than a few minutes, and a short walk leaves them visibly tired.
You don’t have to decline in your 30s like that. Your body was made to move. Humans literally evolved to hunt animals by simply chasing them until the animal collapses from exhaustion. With a little bit of effort you can get that kind of stamina. Start taking walks regularly, maybe even run a little. Drink less soda and alcohol, reduce your sugar intake.
I spent the first half of my 20s a decaying lump that used the computer all day at work then drove home to use the computer all night at home, eating half a bag of candy in one sitting (aka about a dozen servings or more) then during the pandemic a coworker turned me on to a home workout routine that was appropriately communicated so even as a nerd who struggled to lift 40 lbs I could understand it. Working out regularly led me to improving my diet as my body started asking for better food. I lost the fitness habit when I went back to college, but I had already gotten to where I could manage my first pull-up ever in my late 20s (I’d literally never been able to manage a single pullup before) then two years ago I climbed into my bike for the first time in a decade with the goal of being able to do my kids school pickups and dropoffs by bike. I quickly found how out of shape I was and started biking every day. At first it was only 5-10 minutes a day because I could only manage one lap around the block, but slowly I got better. Soon I could go half a mile, a mile, 2 miles, 4 miles and finished the season almost able to bike 10 miles in a ride. This year I hit my next milestone of biking to the next town over and back (about a 22 mile round trip) and started doing school pickups and dropoffs by bike (and I’m literally the only parent doing so at my kids school!) oh and I still use the computer a lot but I’ve also started picking up other hobbies because I realized I don’t want to spend my entire life staring at screens. I picked up and lost a drawing habit, I’ve been reading a lot more and recently I’ve started picking model railroading back up as a hobby. I’m literally in the best shape of my life and feeling good. And I only make old man noises some of the time when sitting on the floor!
The point is, it is absolutely worth it to pick up some healthy habits and drop some unhealthy ones. The physical and psychological benefits are totally worth it. My whole body feels so much better to live in. Just start small. Maybe take a walk every day (seriously more people need to take walks around their neighborhoods, you’ll feel so much more connected with your community!) reducing/dropping soda and alcohol is also life changing. I know a couple of people who lost a ton of weight just by dropping soda and making no other dietary changes. You don’t realize how bad soda is until you take your first sip of soda in years and go “omg that’s way too much sugar how does anyone drink this?” Your body wasn’t evolved to drink litres of sugar-coated carbs and sit in chairs all day, and you’re not going to have a good time if that’s what you do. Making some small lifestyle tweaks can be completely life-changing and all for the better at that
I’m just going to say if a small number of people have these problems maybe its a “lifestyle choice” but if a lot of people have these problems its because society has made decisions to make bad choices easier than good ones. The big ones I’d say are:
- too much overinvestment on roads and vehicles in the US before the 1950s people would be walking not driving. Offices existed before 1950 but 30 mile commutes did not.
- decades of unnaffordable housing lead to higher transportation times
- laws requiring giant parking lots make housing expensive and increase sprawl lead to car dependence
- decades spent subsidizing shipping of goods over local supply creates bad incentives for processed foods
- poor workers rights lead to low levels of free time to do things like cooking, dating, outdoor hobbies
- gun violence, homelessness and sprawl have lead to decreased investment in free public spaces, more polluted waterways (I haven’t heard frogs in years
- car accidences, poor working conditions, poor long term health care, relatively good emergency care, and gun violence lead to the US to be one of the most injured populations outside like war torn third world countries.
- higher reliance on the internet has moved high paying jobs away from extremely rural jobs (historically it had been somewhat reversed with delivery and natural resource jobs being fairly high paying).
We like to pretend there’s a healthy way to live in modern society but imo its not realistic for everyone to do so and still pay rent.
I think some confusion over the post was that some people only eat crazy health food stuff. Never ever have a cocktail. Everyday they blend some ultra “supposedly” good for you shakes. If they ever ate a hamburger they would just die. In my opinion those people have taken the “healthy” lifestyle on as a religion.
The people I identify with eat healthy foods like chicken, and I don’t mean chicken nuggets. They limit their drinking to only a few days a week. They exercise at least an hour a day and I mean a real exercise like on a commercial grade elliptical or even an hour long bike ride. But they will occasionally have a dessert or a hamburger. They stay at their idea weight but continue to enjoy life.
That’s great, it sounds like we’re on a similar page! I think your post managed to hit a nerve because there is a definite number of people who once they finish college and land a decent job they just…decay. They work sitting in a chair then go home and do hobbies sitting in chairs, they don’t get any meaningful physical activity in any given week and they joke about how unhealthy their lifestyle is. It seemed to me and probably others that this was where this post came from was a place of joking about how badly you (the royal you, not necessarily you specifically) treat your body, and our society is really well setup for people to do this and for it to seem perfectly normal
Boomer facebook logic on Lemmy makes me sad.
It’s pretty wild how rapidly this place declines as it grows in popularity.
Just like reddit. Lazier and lazier users, producing the same lazy commentary and totally obsessed with self-pitying themselves and blaming everyone else for their woes. Shit’s wild.
I just don’t get why people find this crap so appealing or funny. But also, apparently anyone who doesn’t use Linux is needs to be ‘re-educated’ about his holy computing lord, Linux. I’m starting to get this super weird Linux PMs from psychopaths who think your OS is some sort of religious thing.
Look the linux stuff keeps away the really annoying people so just play along until they realize it
linux is fine for nerds. normal people are never going to use it.
I use Arch BTW.
1990s NY cab driver voice Fuck off
Tsprawycd?
it’s worse than you think.
it’s not like you stop aging at 30 and just die early. no, no no no. it’s far more sinister than that.
In winter I wake up with massive migraines, because my back got cold in the middle of the night.
every time I turn my head left or right, it’s like gravel is grinding between my vertebrae.
I called into work one day because I slept wrong. that’s right. my body was in so much pain because I slept wrong.
I can’t eat too much bread or my acid reflux triggers my heart condition and I feel my heart literally stopping.
I sit on the can trying to shit unsuccessfully for over an hour, which triggers my hemorrhoids and makes it painful when I finally do get to shit my three day back"log".
oh yeah, can’t shit? back injury triggered. I took a shit so hard one time my back popped out of alignment. I needed help to get off the shitter.
being healthy doesn’t give you more years. being healthy gives you better years.
quality of life over quantity of life.
all you young shits need to take care of your health, because when it’s gone you’ll never get it back.
You forgot about QoL. Yes, you only live like 3 years more, but you will keep your teeth for most of them, won’t suffer from something awful like diabetes, and will be significantly smarter and stronger.
Stronger I get. But could you detail smarter? I know that through certain biological processes and thought exercises you can build the brain’s capacity, but I am unaware that you have to be physically healthy for this.
There’s a million illnesses that can make you dumber. It’s hard to think when you have constant back pain. It’s hard to think when you’re constantly tired for no reason. long covid famously causes “brain fog”. So on and so forth.
Fair point, I was thinking of cognitive decline, which is still tru of course with things like dementia. I just wanted a more detailed view on it.
Poor nutrition has been correlated with a lack of success across all dimensions for generations… Including intelligence on every measure.
Try eating nothing but sugary junkfood every day, see if you can focus after that.
Yes, the pre-requisite amino-acids, creatine, B vitamins. Those things have a significant impact on your capacity to think.
I have no clue how I dodge the type 2 bullet. Like I eat relatively healthy (because steak and mashed potatoes or fast food everyday sounds boring AF) but outside of college, I am one of the laziest mfers alive. But in my forties I started getting my a1c checked my serum level hasn’t been above 4.
It feels like I both won and lost the genetic lottery. Early onset arthritis and started balding in my twenties. But I’m tall, relatively healthy outside of the arthritis, and told by people who aren’t related to me that I’m conventionally attractive. The genome gives and the genome taketh away it seems.
I got ADHD, reflux really early, and forehead wrinkles before I was 18 (but that’s from always frowning). Other than that, I manage to occasionally get asked what grade I am in…at 30 years old.
I ate like a trash-compactor most of my life.
You may be the world’s smartest man. I don’t even care about the 3 years. Hell they’re not guaranteed anyway. I just don’t want to be carted around and hooked up to machines for the 20 years or so I have left.
Had an uncle who loved to drink. When he retired he was basically hammered before dinner was served almost every day. Got diabetes and a damaged liver. Died a slow and horrible death. Got necrosis in both his legs, had them both amputated. It didn’t stop his body from wasting away.
Have another uncle who loved to drink a glass of wine regularly and eat lots of red meat. Has Parkinson’s now and is severely demented. I’m sure genetics played a factor but his lifestyle didn’t help. And the fungicides used in vineyards has been linked to Parkinson’s, in France the regions with many vineyards have higher rates of Parkinson’s compared to the rest of the country.
It’s already too late for my teeth. most are falling out already.
I don’t know what to say, get implants or something. I think humans were a mistake, and maybe something better will replace us.
Maybe scientists will accidentally make life that is smarter than us, healthier than us, and more ethical than us. I just hope this wretched species does not go on forever, because I don’t want anyone else to suffer like this after we are all gone.
Would if I could. Implants would be far too expensive for me.
I agree that humanity is most likely a mistake. What have we done that’s so great that warrants our continued, independent and unchecked existence?
Yeah, we’ve done some cool stuff, like making big buildings, and technology… But I can’t think of anything humanity has done that benefited anyone other than us. We are the benefactors of everything we do. No matter how much we to to do for nature, it’s only mitigating the damage we have caused, at best. We are a disaster for the Earth and for nature.
If we were to stop existing, the plants and animals would take back the land, slowly but surely, and almost everything that made us special or unique would erode away. Our entire history would be lost to time, and nobody would care in the slightest.
Our existence is nonsense and pointless beyond whatever purpose we assign to ourselves.
I realized this many years ago, in my early 20s. Since then I’ve been working to make others happy, since I don’t really have any goals of my own.
But is it really ordinary humans that is the problem? At least in my life, almost all people i meet have good in them. But watching the horrors we call leaders, of both corporations and the world, is ridiculously sad.
Maybe we just need to switch our focus away from those people who are put in our face, by media and in our jobs, and focus on eachother instead.
Yes, the ordinary person is what enabled the world to be where it is. It does not even have to be the majority of people, just a few bad apples are enough.
And we will always circle back to Dystopia, unless we straight up start implanting chips into people, modifying them genetically, or some other species takes over.
Because I really don’t see how we are viable as we are. I’m not willing to advocate straight up negative eugenics either, so fuck it.
EDIT: This is about health apparently, so I was coming from a place of we rot too easily, and have tons of flaws. Like I said, genetic modification, or some less miserable species replaces us.
How did ordinary people enable it? Because I feel we have absolutely no power to affect anything.
Maybe you mean day to day actions like putting ourselves first and ignore strangers.
Staying healthy isn’t only about living longer, it’s about quality of life while alive.
You’ll understand when you get older.
Yes, that’s the important part that people often seem to forget. Being totally wrecked in your 40s or even earlier is not good.
Being totally wrecked in your 40s or even earlier is not good.
i concur: in my 40s, totally wrecked. i still consider myself extremely lucky. no ragrets
Same here. But I ate healthy all my life.
It was the drugs that were the problem.
Same here, but genes were the problem.
So, not healthy, then
genuine question: when someone says “i eat healthy,” do you always inject your own meaning of “i don’t use drugs or smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol or do anything else ‘unhealthy’” ?
in other words, to you “i eat healthy” = “i don’t do anything unhealthy”?
because that’s what you just did
The original post says “healthy,” not “eat healthy.”
Blubr blablih bralblu.
Yeah, I keep reminding people, especially young people about this.
What’s the use of living until you’re 70 if you spend the last ten years of life living in a body that is half dead?
I know one guy who worked in heavy industry retire at 65 and decided to just smoke, drink booze and eat junk on his couch for his retirement. He loved it for about two years. Then he had heart attack, diabetes, and early signs of dementia. He lingered for 8 more years living a miserable life before he died a slow death in hospice for about a year.
One my of neighbours is 80 years old and still at home … but for the past ten years, he’s been battling cancer, heart problems and almost semi regular infections of some kind. His entire life is just pain every day. He keeps ending up in the hospital for something … only to return a week or two later after having survived. He is just miserable all the time and the only way anyone can see him coming out of all this is to die.
I have another old friend who is 70, great heart, good weight, good bodily health … but she has Alzheimers … and she’s had signs of it for the past ten years. She’ll live for a while but what kind of life is it to not have your memory for the last ten years of your life?
Take care of yourself as much as possible now while you are young. Sure some of this is just genetics or luck but I’d rather try my best to have a decent quality of life later on than do things to guarantee I’ll be miserable at the end of my life.
What’s the use of living to 70 in this world? I recently hit 30, and I’m just looking around…none of this world is actually for me, I can’t do anything other than work. Society automatically hates me now by default, I can no longer do things like join the army or be a firefighter, and I can’t even spend this life to make someone else’s better.
It didn’t have to be like this either, someone decided that some people should get proper schooling, healthcare, and a full life, and others should be gaslight into thinking whatever they do isn’t enough, and just exploited for labor until they die. And if they survive, society is like “congratulations! You can finally enjoy your life! Here’s all the free time you ever wanted…in your 60’s”. You get one last free trial of what a real life looks like, when you already burned out every dopamine having neuron you have, and you can’t even enjoy it anymore. THEN society decides to give you a break.
Then we get those same old people in-charge, and we wonder why they are trying to kill us all.
Based on these stories, it sounds like the real gameplan is to just take up increasingly extreme sports in your 50s and hope you die in an accident so you don’t live long enough to get decrepit.
The issue with that is that an accident might leave you in a state that’s alive but wheelchair-bound, bed-bound, blind or even fully vegetable. Vegetable might not be an issue because your consciousness is probably already gone, but it’s a huge strain on your loved ones. Being disabled might mean that you have a shit quality of life and now also have a hard time finding an easy/painless way to die.
Flashbacks to having to read Ethan Frome in highschool…
Granpa always wants excitement
He’ll try anything new
So he made some homemade bungie cords
He would’ve been eighty-two!May I recommend BASE jumping? It is considered the most extreme sport.
How’d grampa die?
BASEd.
TIL BASE is an acronym
How about cave diving? Might be cool to combine the two.
My grandma lived to be 99. She was still coherent and out working in the garden until 95. It’s really amazing when you see this. She got up every morning and did her simple stretches and body weight exercises. Ate well but not crazy well.
My grandma on my mom’s side lived to be 85 but she had a bit of dementia at the end.
My grandpa on my dad’s side lived to be 85 too and his mind was great but his body wasn’t.
But every time I hear stories of people who lived long lives, you have to compare that to the number of people they outlived or those people from their generation who didn’t make it.
For every 99 year old, there were hundreds or even thousands that didn’t make it to that age. It’s really a very lucky thing to live that long … and even more like winning a lottery to live that long and have a bit of health and be in your right mind.
I think a lot of it also isn’t luck. Avoiding alchohol and tobacco, exercising every day, maintaining contact with family, etc.
Most definitely involves luck in many cases. My wife currently has pulmonary fibrosis, a life shortening disease that basically slowly erodes your lungs. We did our best to take care of ourselves, good food, not too much, not too little, vitamins, health conscience, exercise, keeping active, healthy mind, staying active, staying connected … and neither being too excessive or obsessive of taking care of ourselves either.
We have a doctor friend of ours who told us … it was just luck … we caught a bad flu a few years ago, just before the pandemic. I got over it, she never did and still hasn’t. She is healthy as anything otherwise but her lungs will give out in a year maybe two, possibly three but the end is coming and its horrible to think about.
We did everything right, we just didn’t get lucky.
Yes luck certainly has something to do with it. But in my 50’s and 60’s I still see a majority of people having soda, sweets, alcoholl, fried food, not exercising on a regular basis and then being surprised that their health is not great.
Yeah - quality of life eating bullshit food to die at 77 instead of 76
Have you ever woke up and felt like garbage despite not doing anything diabolical the previous night (drinking etc)? And you wondered why you felt like shit?
The answer may surprise you
since everyone else is already rightly pointing out the improved quality of life, I’ll emphasize that this includes mental health. When people with poor lifestyle habits quip, “I’m here for a good time, not a long time,” do you think the rest of us hear anything other than a veiled cry for help? You’re obviously not having a good time.
Healthy lifestyle habits are the best of both worlds. They feel better, allow you to have more joy, and give you more time to experience more of it, while aging and eventually dying far more gracefully.
I’ll never drink again, but there are some days still that I wish my mind could be as numb as it was while I was a raging alcoholic. That thought is usually replaced with remembering how shitty I always felt and how I didn’t give a fuck about anything. Life was a blur.
A mostly clear mind and recovering body is a very good thing. Daily stress is easily managed with regular exercise and chronic anxiety and depression is only a tiny fraction of what it once was. It’s a good life now.
I believe the lifestyle changes not only lengthened my life, but it also stretched out my perceived time as well.
Generally, you not only live longer but you die with fewer complications. You can be sick for 20 years before you go or live in considerabel health until your last day. People with a healthy life style get sick too but they just have lower odds of getting terminally Ill.
We had a guy come talk to us about this at work, a researcher. The way he explained it was that staying healthy let you have more years that feel good, getting old more slowly doesn’t necessarily mean you will live longer, but live without disease then get something that kills you fast.
So that if, for example, you live to 80, get old at 70, not 50, so that you don’t have to be old for 30 years. That’s the point of the whole longevity push and it is actually working, people are aging more slowly.
Drop soda. Treat it as a one time a week treat. Will change your life
Replaced pop/soda with tea(specifically looseleaf) about 15 years ago. At first needed it sweetener(with honey) to enjoy. Now, no sweetener at all is best.
And there are so many awesome flavours.
Right now I have a fantastic vanilla and peppermint tea as my latest addition.
Yean once you start liking unsweetened iced tea, you can’t go back. I do like a shot or 2 of vanilla suryup lol
I love unsweet iced tea…but I find myself missing carbonated beverages…
Soda is poison pure and simple. I have it maybe once a year (occasional ginger ale on a plane). Don’t miss it, that stuff is nasty.
When you are in your death bed you’ll ask yourself what you could have done for a few more good years
What’s wrong with Michelin?
In bad health you can ask yourself what you could have done if you were in good health.
But you shouldn’t. No good comes from dwelling on what you cannot do.
Signed, A disabled person
If you cannot change the course of history do not dwell, but if you can, think about it and act accordingly.
All my best wishes
Wrong. Quality of life is worth more than a few extra years of eating bugs
TSPRAWYCD
