The Healthiest People in the World Don’t Go to the Gym
medium.com
medium.com
Unfortunately, in the US riding a bike on the streets quickly shows you how little many people value the lives of cyclists. But the safety statistics improve almost every year, showing that the tide is turning.
Just like people choose where to live to have a good driving commute, you might need to change where you live to have a good cycling commute. This seems to disappoint many people who are basically locked in to a location that's bad for cycling (too long a commute, poor safety, etc.), but it's necessary to give cycling a fair chance.
Many people are incredulous that I buy groceries with a bike as well. This is completely possible for an individual if you have storage on your bike and go weekly. Plus, as an added bonus I don't buy much junk food because I don't have the space.
I live in Amsterdam and the commute is ~6km each way. It might not seem very much, but I ride whatever the weather and whatever time of day/night. It helps enormously having the dedicated cycle path infrastructure.
I'm a cyclist at heart and did wonder if the oversaturation of daily biking would alter my view from "enjoyable pastime" to "necessary evil". It's almost done the opposite. Not only has my fitness improved (so I can enjoy longer rides with less effort), but the fresh air and independence (leave and arrive by my own steam, not waiting for a bus or stuck in a traffic jam) really does make each day start better. It's also changed my perception of what can be achieved - even if it's chucking down with rain and a howling wind.... I still have to get on two wheels and pedal to work.
If only the government would understand all the benefits having a proper safe cycling infrastructure can bring to the people...
Plus, in the US at least, roads are usually paid for through general taxation. The value of the gas tax is small and has only been decreasing.
(All of this ignores the massive parking subsidies cyclists have to pay for but can't use too.)
Ultimately, what matters more is drivers improving how they interact with cyclists. Having spoken with dozen if not hundreds of drivers I am quite familiar with the "I had no choice [aside from almost running you over]", which is never true in my experience. Drivers always have the choice of waiting, but too many are impatient and literally value saving seconds over someone else's physical safety. I think US drivers as a whole are slowly realizing this.
The worst is when a driver nearly runs you over right before a stoplight, which you both sit at for a few minutes. In this case the time saved was zero, and this happens a lot more frequently than I would like. Unfortunately many drivers don't think ahead much or else they would often realize that they'd have to wait anyway, so there's no point in passing.
http://time.com/4893161/hiit-high-intensity-interval-trainin...
I think the point is that you don’t have only 3 hours in a week. You can bring physical activity in many other things you’re already doing. One minor example that I’m trying to focus on: I go for a walk when I take any phone calls.
1) Their lifestyle encouraged lots of low-key, continuous activity. You want a plate? Go get the footstool because grandma keeps her plates on a high shelf.
2) Their cultures encourage small meals and not eating more than you really need. Instilling your kids with “Finish your plate” guilt is a bad idea.
3) Their cultures encourage lots of socialization with lifelong groups of friends hanging out and doing things together daily forever.
Or the parents could serve appropriate portions in the plate instead? Usually it's always the veggies which are last in the plate, but when the dessert arrives, there's suddenly lot of room left.
In Sardinia not finishing you plate is offensive, and you should always finish, not accepting a beer offered by a stranger is offensive and you have to accept and drink it. And we cook a LOT, a big difference I notice when coming to live in London, is that British eats a 1 course meal, while in Sardinia Lunch and Dinner are both 3 courses meal. And during festivals, holidays and weddings we step up our game, an usual wedding has something like 50 courses, where you eat from 1pm until 11pm. When we go to the beach we don't bring a sandwich, we bring meatballs, lasagna, cold pasta, cold rice a couple of watermelons, and enough food for eat an entire week.
To say in small words, in Sardinia meals are extra large
All the elderly people I know have a lifestyle that can be considered weird, for example: - My grandfather goes every single day to farm his land, he spent 3-4 hours every day doing all kind of farm jobs, mostly potting plants and digging the land. Even if he is after his 70 he is stronger than me (and I don't consider myself weak). - My neighbour (an old lady around 110 years old, that lives alone and sometimes you say around 4 generations of daughters at her house (I usually see her in company of her daughter, her granddaughter, her grand-granddaughter and her grand-grand-granddaughter) wakes up every morning before the sun can raise and goes to the fields to cut wood and then she carries it on her back. - My other old neighbour wakes up every morning very early to, and goes to farm, he his nearly never at home and hangs out with the gang of old people (it's not a gangster, they simply walk around the village and they sit in every bench in every square)
To summarise, I think the difference is the mentality, the people I know, old or young have all in common their absurd stubbornness, all these people loves their work, and even after going to pension they want to continue working (many says they will work until death), many of the elderlies weren't farmer before pension, but they choose to start doing it instead of doing nothing, essentially is people that don't like to lay on the couch and watch the TV, but instead going on the nature and pass their time there. Also many of these people have some unhealthy habits, like drinking insane doses of wine, beer, limoncello and mirto.
There's a ton of other differences, but I don't want to write an article in this comment
Have there been studies on what kind of percentage of the population exhibits a stubbornness against doing nothing? Is it inherent/genetic, or is it cultural (or how much is contributed by those factors). Those that oppose measures like a universal basic income often point to a tendency to do nothing and while I can agree that certainly there exists some portion of the population that that would describe, I don't know just how prevalent it is, or if it can be "fixed" socially.
There's a fad of prematurely optimizing for what's best (in diet too) when actually what would help most is getting more people to do something active more often. I would be much more supportive of this article if it didn't try to discourage some types of exercise as not being perfect but just explained that walking and biking to work is good for you too.
Just do the exercise you enjoy and can keep doing regularly. Don't worry if it's not going to make you the healthiest person in the world. Just start with doing something regularly be it in the gym, HIT, walking or riding your bike to work.
There is nothing wrong with gyms and high intensity exercise. They are indeed worse than the recommended form of exercise but implying that they are unnecessary is a bad advice for many.
I think before giving this kind of general advice one needs to remember that not everybody has the luxury of adopting a lifestyle like the world's centenarians. "Quit your gyms!" advice won't be helpful at all for many.
This somehow reminds me of the "the right thing" vs "worse is better" duality in software development.
Note: I'm a health geek and hate gyms myself but for other reasons.
The upside to the Daily Mail style is that, like a scammer intentionally aiming for the credulous, its total confidence and lack of misgivings helps weed out unintended audiences.