the ride is long but my fast is longer

Image ID: A bluesky post by Robert Event @iwriteok:

"one of the most dangerous truths of the modern era is this:

all evidence-backed "wellness" and "life-extension" tactics are just basic diet and exercise. Most people have very little they can do to impact their longevity besides regularly go to the doctor and get vaccinated, etc

you have almost nothing to gain from spending money on self-help or body optimization books and courses. most supplements and health topics are bogus. but universal healthcare would meaningfully extend your probably lifespan.

Eat whole foods

Do cardio

Lift weights

Stop forgetting about binge eating disorder, night eating syndrome, pica disorder, and gourmand syndrome. They are eating disorders too.

Also, PLEASE start including orthorexia amongst restrictive eating disorders. Orthorexia is a HIGHLY neglected condition in psychology BECAUSE IT DIRECTLY CALLS OUT DIET CULTURE, and how diets are bullshit.*

Orthorexia Nervosa causes a person to become obsessed with eating "healthy" food. What they consider to be "healthy" can vary between each person, and they treat certain foods as "clean" and "dirty."

Their diets either consist of eating far too little food (ie; only eating one meal a day, or eating meals that are so small that they don't sustain them), or leaving out important food groups (ie; lacking food that has protein.)

Skinny people often use the arguement that they have the right to be fatphobic towards people wjo are overweight because they are trying to encourage them to 'be healthy". so it's understandable that the kneejerk reaction is to disprove that, but that's not the point. the point is bodily autonomy. point is that being overweight shouldn't get you killed the medical industry. the point is that fattness shouldn't get individuals ostrisised from communities, or being forced to expain themselves. fat people should be allowed to be happy with their bodies without being fetishised or demeaned or treated as mentally ill.

I know Western culture has a long history of equating health with morality, but this seems like such a distinctly American idea. The idea that you as an individual can personally defeat cancer, broken bones, dental problems, poor eyesight, and all the medical issues that come from just living long enough.

Even if somebody does eat only junk food, never exercises, and gains so much weight that it destroys their health, you know what that is? A fucking health problem for which someone needs medical intervention. Not a moral failing, not a statement of someone's worthiness as a person.

If I can't, then it's totally okay to be fat, regardless of whether or not that statement is even relevant to the conversation of what I want to be, and if I can't on my own and then use some medicine, then some pretentious pseudointellectual college grad writes a think-piece on how I'm a fucking tragedy for using the tools at my disposal to look how I want to look, pretending that painting me as a victim isn't the same as shaming me.

Do you really hate weight training? Or do you hate doing pushups and sit-ups and squats?

Do you really hate cardio? Or do you hate trying to run as fast as you can for as long as you can?

I used to think I hated exercise too. Then I learned that every movement in the world can be modified to suit my level. I can also just not do exercises I hate. I haven't done a sit up in literally ten years. I never go for runs.

I walk and I play and I move heavy objects or manipulate my body weight in ways that feel easy and accessible to my body. I take really long rests and rarely work hard enough to break into a real sweat, and I'm still getting all the benefits. I'm getting way more benefits actually.

When I used to think that exercise had to equal suffering, I rarely ever did it. And there are no benefits in the exercise I won't actually do.

Now I train 3-4 days a week. Gleefully. Because I want to. Because I like it. Because I don't have to do a single exercise I don't enjoy and for every muscle there is to train, there's a ton of options.

Training doesn't have to be intense. Exercise doesn't have to feel like a punishment. There are so many more ways to joyfully move my body than I ever realized, because my grade school PE class taught me that exercise is always misery.

Because it focused on basically five, high level skills that I never learned the foundation to do.

Push-up, pull up, sit up, toe touch, and run

That was my entire "physical education."

And unsurprisingly I walked away believing that exercise is miserable and I just hate it.