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Do the minimum to live longer?
In a new book titled The First 20 minutes, health and fitness expert Gretchen Reynolds argues that even those who lead a sedentary lifestyle can remain healthy and prolong their life if they only exercised for twenty minutes a day. And by exercise she suggests things like walking, standing–anything that is considered a movement, and not necessarily a sweat promoting exercise. I don’t know what to think about these findings; I’m no scientist, but having been to the mall many times in Buffalo, NY, when visiting my parents during winter time–only to see many overweight mall walkers—obviously exercising by Ms. Reynolds findings, but remaining overweight seems to undermine the whole idea of keeping healthy in my opinion. But the author also states that a lower weight is not the main goal of exercise—I don’t get it, I’ve been under the impression that being overweight may ultimately bring along all sorts of undesirable diseases as you age. I know some of you will jump down my throat and say that plenty of thin people suffer from similar diseases as overweight people do, and my response to that is: of course they do! Health is also heavily reliant on genetics but, generally speaking, keeping a healthy weight does prevent many diseases most of the time. And I know, just because someone is overweight does not make them unhealthy! My dad is a heart surgeon, so I grew up, from a very young age, forewarned about the correlation between a bad diet, weight, and health issues. I remember my father’s reaction every time he would operate on a healthy looking young bodybuilder for instance. Back in the day, the notion was that they should eat mostly meat in order to maintain their bulk, but with that diet came along clogged arteries for instance . . . They looked good on the outside but were completely rotten on the inside. If people from an early age were taught simply to eat the right foods and exercise routinely, in the same way that we're required to brush our teeth daily, for instance, then good food and exercise would become part and parcel of everyone’s routine–the way nature intended it to be. I'm not promoting a strict and unforgiving regimen, we're not training for the Olympics–that is not the way I live either–but only to keep a healthy balance of things. On the whole it's a cultural problem–have you ever read the book Fast Food Nation–it's a real eye opener.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/the-surprising-shortcut-to-better-health/
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8 Replies
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It all depends on your original fitness level, after I was bed ridden for a few months walking around did get me sweating. I wasn't overweight but I was very unhealthy. So that's how I started getting back into shape, I walked for 20 minutes and built up from there. For me that 20 minutes did make a huge difference to my health. I didn't lose weight but I stopped getting out of breath so quickly and wasn't so tired all the time. I'm no longer living like that so of course 20 minutes of walking etc. doesn't feel like much anymore.
It sounds like the book is aimed towards people who do no exercise. So for them an extra 20 minutes of anything will have it's benefits.
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@wrinkletalk – I love when you use the term "undesirable diseases" it puts in my head an image of two old women talking and one saying to the other:
"I've wanted cancer my whole life, its the sexiest of the terminal diseases you know. It was getting to the point I thought I was just going to die of old age but guess what, yesterday the doctor called and….. I've got it!!! I got cancer!!! I couldn't be happier."
Really though its all a matter of perspective. What are your life goals? What makes you happy? If you live your whole life to stave off disease and death you will may die at 115 but will you have enjoyed the road getting there? Will you feel fulfilled on your deathbed?
Life like anything else is about so much more than quantity, and each person's perspective on what constitutes quality is different than another's. Because of this exercise is about options, for someone to say "Did you know that even these little exercises provide you these benefits" only expands our options as a society.
Just like no-one should be surprised that a Supersized Big Mac meal with a fully leaded coke is not healthy. I don't think anyone will expect that these 20 minutes of exercise will make you look like Matthew McConaughey.
In the end we each have to make our own decisions as to what makes our life liveable and what makes us happy. In the timeless words of the inimitable Foamy the Squirrel "If you wanna be a fat bastard be a fat bastard!" or a much more objective version:
"Do what makes you happy and everything else will follow"
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Its just so different from person to person. I personally cant find a catagory I fit into. I would love to be able to eat all healthy because it makes me feel in harmony. But I cant keep my wheigt up when eating healthy food. I read the word "diet" and I've lost 2 kilos right there. (well you know :)) Last year when I started pole dancing I decided to go all out and be totally healthy. It ended up with me going to the hospital with a wheight slidely under 35 kilos. I got a food-plan from a professional and that contained healthy foods to. I didn't gain any weight and I struggled to hold on to my current scale number. Finally the doctor said "Screw it. You eat thick gravie and dont say no to cake!" I then got a food plan that pretty much contained everything you would clasify as unhealthy, but it worked and I now weigh 45 kilos and Im still working on it, but I've never felt better. No one on a diet would look at my food and claime that I was healthy, but thats actually what I am. I agree with webmaster on living your life. I could stay in a bubble if I wanted and go on living for ages, but I'll have nothing in the end. I'll problably die from stress and over working, because my dream is to work as a doctor in a hospital but when its my time, I'll be at peace with it.. Wow, sorry for the rant..
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i agree with steffie that everyone is different. i grew up in the 70's before there was so much hype about health and health foods (at least where i grew up). i was raised on the traditional meat and potatoes diet, but with processed foods, canned and frozen vegetables, and never knew there was any kind of lettuce besides iceberg. we had every kind of junk food imaginable, including frozen dinners, fish sticks, tater tots, rice a roni, spagetti-o's, and other meals from a box or can. potato chips, soda, packaged cookies, and candy. no one knew any of this was bad for you back then, LOL. i think when you are young, you can get away with anything! of course there are exceptions. i got interested in health and fitness at a pretty young age though, including yoga (which no one even heard of back then). so i have tried many different types of diets and lifestyles. it all depends what you want out of life. but now that i'm in my 40's, i am finding that the healthier my diet, the better i feel. i recently went totally vegan, eliminated processed foods of all types, salt, and foods cooked with oils. it has made a huge difference for me, i have so much more energy! i do find that i have to eat ALOT though, especially the day after a good pole practice. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_porc.gif
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What a cool thread! I try to keep it simple- eat well, eat when you're hungry, don't deprive myself otherwise I turn into a junk food beast, everything in moderation, and get up and move.
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I'm with tarah. When I was young, I ate all I liked and didn't seem to have any serious health problems. When ages are adding up, I could no longer do that. The foods I ate, although not fast foods, were very fatty & salty. I didn't eat fruits. After I read about healthy diet, I went vegan too and feel very bendy. In the past when doing a front split, I struggled to raise my back leg to my head but after I went vegan, it's a simple move. I asked a friend who's a yoga instructor. He said he feels cleaner & more flexible when he goes vegan too.
As for exercises, I strongly believe a lazy person will be in worse health condition than a hard working person. In my family, those who often leave rotten tea cups (I bet their lose-fat teas are in there) at their bedside table (lazy to clean the cups after they drink), who often ask someone else to bring them something (such as tv remote control, raw foods to cook…), and who often ask someone to do something for them, are all fat. In my family, those who move a lot are thinner and healthier. Because every move counts, be it exercises or house works….
In my family, even when we eat the same foods, those who eat a lot of meats and no vegetables are all fat.
Some will be very offended and say that they are fat but healthy and there're so many sick thin people around them. They say that we like to label diabetes with fat people and it's not true. But I believe eating like what our grandmother ate is healthier than what we eat nowadays. They say people living on high mountains have never suffered from heart problems.
I'm still on my way learning to live healthy because people in my family are all in wrong conditions, one or another (knee, back, stomach, etc.). I must not be next in the list.
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there are MANY factors to being healthy and to pinpoint one thing and focus only on that will not work for most. Thats focusing on a tree instead of the forest. A persons diet, their environment, what toxins a person is exposed to at home, at work, in transit, if you live upstairs, or near trees, genetics, how a person handles stress, water quality, blah blah blah i could probably list hundreds of things that are factors in health and disease. I have never heard of that book, but i do know that anyone can write a book and the info does not need to be validated. Clinical studies don't really mean much either because any scientist will tell you that you can pretty much make whatever result you want to happen, happen. (bias related to funding) Some guy named Atkins wrote a book and we all know what happened to him.
Anyway- a book that tells an overweight america that it's possible to be healthy and sedentary sounds like a money maker to me. : )
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I think that there are just too many of these "quick fix" "golden ticket" gimmicks out now-a-days. The amount of stress we place on ourselves to acheive this "perfect" standard of health and beauty is an issue in itself. The stress alone to acheive something that impossible shaves years off our lives. And to be honest, if there was a way to have the "perfect" body, I think there would be a lot more of us living to our 100's. No one has those kinds of answers and everything that says it does is just speculation or advertising. That's not to say we should be unaware of our bodies but instead focus on doing the things that make us feel good, happy, and strong.
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