Chapter 11
KEEPING FIT
We would eat better, or more wisely, if every time we ate something that was not good for us, a loud bell would ring! Did you see the Farside cartoon of the man coming out of the restaurant washroom and above him over the door was a flashing sign with loud bells ringing? The sign screamed “Didn’t wash hands!”
We need the same thing for the food we eat. Right? In the average restaurant you will see people with a full plate of eggs, french fried potatoes and sausages, washed down with several cups of coffee. How do they manage? Perhaps they don’t feel it until it catches up with them as they get on in years.
I was working in Toronto as the industrial engineer of a food company and was assigned to a candy plant in Montreal. Since I was away from home I frequently worked through the evening meal. The company's products included prepared and packaged peanuts. I would grab a handful of freshly oiled peanuts and get a coke from the soft drink machine, and maybe a chocolate bar and kept on working. Then sometime later my dentist put a scare into me by describing the damage that could be done to my teeth with eating too much sugar like soft drinks and chocolate bars! So after that I went light on the sweets. But what chances we do take with our health!
There are two health trends in the developed countries these days, each the opposite of the other. One is towards overweight, which one can observe any day on the streets and in the urban areas. The other is towards health care, exercise and fitness.
The aim of eating is, of course, twofold pleasure, and sustenance. Hopefully we can balance these towards the pleasure of feeling fit. After all, we want to not just live longer, but better still, live well.
There are so many books on healthy diets that it is not necessary to add to them here. Most of them favour dropping meat and possibly dairy products from the menu. They emphasize grains, vegetables and fruit.
In Canada the government published a list of recommended foods recently which excluded meat products. There was such a commotion generated by the meat industry and meat lovers, that they withdrew the list and re-issued it adding meat. Such is the nature of democracy!
There is so much we can do for ourselves to keep healthy. Probably next to diet comes exercise. I understand that if astronauts went on the nine-month journey to Mars in a gravity-free environment, they would risk breaking their bones when they got out of the spacecraft. The absence of gravity, as we know it on Earth, depletes the calcium from the bones over a long period. Gravity on the spacecraft would then have to be induced by spinning the ship. What this means to me is that a daily exercise of walking (on Earth!) keeps the bones healthy, just by the force of gravity loading the muscles and bones of our bodies. Good for gravity!
Self-healing is an essential aspect of keeping healthy. Self-healing includes first, a healthy diet; secondly exercise. But more than that, the mind can be used to help keep us healthy. Affirmations, telling our bodies to heal, can be helpful. Visioning a healthy body is constructive. I can still remember my father saying to himself every morning:
“Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better!”
Such affirmations can create a zest for life that is a great way to live. Do you wake up in the morning sort of drugged? Or do you waken with a zest for life, looking forward to the events of the day?
Avoiding medicinal drugs wherever possible is also a healthy move. When you need them, you need them, but so many ailments can cure themselves with the observation of simple health rules.
I had a “trigger finger” recently and went to the doctor, and then surgeon to see what I might do about it. The surgeon suggested that it is easy to fix. But I don’t like to cut the body more than necessary so I put it off. Then in a few months, with a bit of massage and talking to it, it cured itself. The body does have a lot of healing power of its own. Give it a chance.
There are three things to look after to ensure the good life:
1. Diet
2. Exercise
3. Attitude
The most important of the three is Attitude. If it is appropriate then it will take care of the diet and exercise.
As we said, what you believe is what you are. So believe that you must be fit; then commit to practice the healthy diet; then add the exercise program; and what you believe will come to pass.
There are many courses, books, experts and equipment in the field of keeping fit that the way to go is easily found. What is missing is the motivation and commitment.
I have developed my own set of morning exercises which I have put in the Appendix. Please note that it is my own set, self-designed for me and may not be for everybody. However I thought it would be interesting for you to scan and compare with your own program if you do indeed have one!!
If both our minds and bodies are fit, then we are FIT-WITS! This little piece then is to encourage us all to be FIT-WITS.
So, let’s go for it!I
"Better to hunt in fields, for health unbought,
Than fee the doctor for nauseous draught,
The wise, for cure, on exercise depend,
God never made his work for man to mend."
John Dryden, 1631 1700