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Let’s Move: Take Control of Our Own Health Conditions
I am not a big fan of Michelle Obama, but I liked her push to get kids to exercise. Her Let’s Move initiative tried to address a problem that has deep implications for the country, which I feel Covid-19 has highlighted as brightly as a yellow magic marker slashed across the 2020 calendar.
Of course, the Obama administration also canceled the Presidential Fitness Award in schools, which many of us experienced as students, but I’m willing to believe a program that was first implemented in the 1960s needed some updating, and Let’s Move initiatives at least promote 60 minutes of physical activity every day in K-12 education.
But now many schools are not meeting at all. Team sports are mostly canceled. And I know from my own experiences as a parent that any stress on exercise in the school day had eroded quite a bit before the Obama era, much less the pandemic. It’s no great mystery how over 30% of young Americans have become so overweight that they are automatically ineligible for military service. That has long been identified as a national security issue.
Now I should say I personally was not an athlete as a kid taking PE. I was a severe asthmatic who only enjoyed parachute day. But it doesn’t take a genius to see an unfit society with sedentary children leads to all sorts of problems as those kids turn into sedentary adults with lots of underlying health issues. Covid-19 has exposed some of these health consequences, to be sure, though our responses have been so myopic that almost a year into the thing we still aren’t treating any of those problems now, which strikes me as absolutely cray-cray.
Let me highlight some of my own experiences to give you a better sense of my thinking.
I ran three half-marathons in early 2020 before all outdoor races were essentially canceled across the country, and people were told to stay inside. In a matter of weeks, there were no more running clubs meeting. People were told to socially distance while running, so there were no more running partners, no events to keep one accountable, no running community anymore to motivate anyone to go out on those cold, dark days when it’s a heckuva lot easier to just stay inside and eat waffles.
What happened to me in the “lockdown” period?
I gained seven pounds, which I called my “Covid baby,” as I grew unhappier every day and definitely more unhealthy.
I finally said nope.
I felt as if a virus that I’ve never had was actively killing me in the late spring, early summer. I was not willing to let that continue any longer, so I started running long miles again alone through a city that looked like Zombie Apocalypse Land with only homeless people milling about on the sidewalks. I ignored the nonsensical posts I read online about wearing masks in the open air out of a “sense of solidarity” with my fellow man. (Not only were these posts not scientific, they had the real impact of discouraging vigorous exercise.) I convinced my best friend who lives over a thousand miles away to start running with AirPods, so we could “meet up” for super “socially distanced” runs a couple of mornings a week.
Unfortunately, my poor husband with bad knees who lifts weights for fitness had a lot longer to wait to get back to a health-focused regime because all the at-home gym equipment was sold out across the country for months, and the gyms were all shut down. (To this day, contact tracing shows any spread in gyms where they have been opened has been negligible.) This is still the case in many states–gyms are closed–which I believe actively exacerbates this health crisis.
This has made me a bit angry.
I have never once heard Dr. Fauci–or anyone else from the public sector during the pandemic–discuss how Covid-19 shows us the American lifestyle needs to change. Instead of sitting on our couches, we need to get moving. We need to admit that one of the problems we have as a country requires individuals to get up and do something proactive, especially if we have children. We should not simply “stay at home.”
I think vaccines are great, especially for the elderly, but let’s be real, shall we?
Our bigger, long-term problems cannot be addressed with a shot because no mere shot is getting rid of any of the many co-morbidities that have made way too many people vulnerable in the first place. After all, while some of a person’s risk factors are often completely outside a person’s control–cancer, chronic kidney disease, sickle cell anemia–there are other risk factors that have been created by an individual’s poor choices, i.e., obesity, smoking, and (often) the onset of Type 2 Diabetes.
Now I am about to sound super mean.
Instead of worrying about fat people being more accepted in our culture–a movement that has definitely been a “thing” for the last decade or two–I wish we would start addressing our underlying fitness issues in this country. In fact, I’ve started to get a bit resentful about the fact that we aren’t.
When I’m told it’s my “civic duty” to wear a mask when I’m out, why can’t I say it’s someone else’s “civic duty” to put down that Twinkie and go do some squats, so they aren’t as vulnerable to being seriously hurt by this virus in the first place?
In response, you might say “fat” isn’t contagious, but I say people not taking care of themselves has had a huge impact on medical costs in the country, which I have long been asked to help carry. I hear all the time about the percentage of the American population that has a co-morbidity, which has led to my whole life being upended during this pandemic to protect them.
Please don’t hear me wrong. I understand that people in great shape have passed away with Covid-19. Not every co-morbidity can be controlled, as I said above. I also indulge in an occasional Twinkie. Yet it’s pretty beyond dispute that healthier lifestyles often ameliorate the impact of most chronic diseases (including my asthma), say all doctors everywhere. And we know that more than 90 percent of the people who have actually passed away after contracting Covid-19 had an underlying health condition.
So wouldn’t it be worthwhile to have a broader conversation about how people working out is a much better choice than staying home in isolation? I mean, if we actually could start an exercise craze–think the running revolution of the 1970s!–I think the United States would be a stronger, better, happier country in the future.
I don’t care which person gets this started. Let’s just get moving… now.
Published in General
I play basketball with a bunch of middle aged rebels like myself off and on a couple times a week. We shut down early on, then resumed a month or 2 later and only postponed our games temporarily when our state put in restrictions on how many people can be in the same space at one time. None of us have died yet. A couple of guys got a mild case of the Covid but they sat out a couple of weeks. At our age we’re more at risk of dying from a heart attack. Maybe we’re being irresponsible, but it keeps us in shape.
I feel for your husband! I think rowing is great exercise, though running strikes me as more fun.
Keep being the rebels. It’s better to *live* while you’re living. ;)
I am in violent agreement with your post. AND.
The current Surgeon General tried to open the conversation about all the underlying bad health problems among the poor, especially the urban poor (disproportionately black) and Native Americans on the reservations. He was attacked as racist, shut down by the jackals in the White House press corps.
About 20 years ago, Surgeon General Richard Carmona, who grew up in Harlem, served as an enlisted Special Forces soldier in Vietnam, and was POST qualified to serve as a sheriff’s volunteer deputy, spoke the extremely unpopular truth after 9/11: far more Americans will kill themselves with obesity than will ever be killed by terrorists. If Bush was all in for a “long war,” then he could and should have pitched “we’re in this together” as everyone doing their bit to reduce the cost pressure on the health system by simple exercise and better eating choices.
I’m sensing the call for a Ricochet run club…
I don’t remember the Surgeon General episode. I wish he’d stood his ground. As for obesity rates among kids, it is actually shocking how high they are. It really is a major issue.
That is a fabulous idea!!! I mean… I don’t love “virtual races,” but I bet we could do some collective reporting of exercise today and feel good about it. Maybe we could all report what we do for just *today* that has us moving???? (Going for a walk counts!!!! Basketball? Rowing??? Sure!) But we could just share our collective efforts????
My father is very ill with cancer, but I created a monster when I showed him how to look up his “steps” on his phone. He has a step goal every day though it’s hard to go as far as the mailbox. He carries his phone now like a Millennial.
The point is… if my father can pay attention to how he is moving, we all can!!!!
I had a TIA a few months ago so I don’t run like I used to. The state wants us to be unhealthy. Closing the gym’s and trying to make us wear a gag when we exercise outside is just another way for the state to gin up calls for national health.
I honestly don’t understand they’re thinking. It’s seriously misguided. Be a rebel with us though!!! Go on a walk today? We absolutely won’t tell anyone if you leave the mask behind. ;)
If anyone didn’t see this newly minted post by Eksoj, it’s well worth the time to read. Apart from being just generally inspiring per where we all are now, he once ran from DC to Baltimore just to see a girl!!!! That’s… epic.
This was from my morning trail run. It’s in the 30s. I wore a hoody covered in candy canes. I chatted with a friend on my AirPods with my phone tucked into my Lulu Lemon tights. (People you pass do give you looks as if you’re a crazy person when you’re chatting away next to no one, but it’s actually a surprisingly good system when you can’t run together in person.) My happy dog got muddy feet. I logged 6 miles, though I didn’t set any speed records. “Slow and steady” is a good motto. Most important, no matter what else I do today, I know I have done something worthwhile. Heck. Per the spirit of my post, I’m gonna say I’ve done something downright patriotic. :)
Does anyone else want to add some miles/exercise time to our Virtual Ricochet Running Day?????? Walk! Run! Row! Whatever! If you’d rather time to include other exercises, I ran for an hour. Help me!!!!
Stop being so reasonable.
I was due to swim laps this afternoon, but just cancelled after shoveling the heavy crap the plows threw into the driveway last night. Whew!
I think shoveling snow counts as productive exercise, so… time???? We can add that to the tally!!!!
45 minutes.
I’m 70 and have two artificial knees, one is a re-do. Before the gyms closed, I mostly used an elliptical for cardio exercise. Now I go out “walking” which has morphed into a sort of jog which is a little less boring than just walking. I cover 5 km (3+ mi) in about 55 min, a real speedster. I also take my hiking sticks with me because my balance isn’t the greatest. I mostly go around the neighborhood which includes both pavement and some dirt trails and roads. I probably look funny, but who cares. Several times some bikers who pass me have said “good job” to me. I wonder what it is that inspires them to say that. My hair is gray so my age is obvious and the sticks probably indicate some extra problems. But I feel like this routine has been better for me than the elliptical. I go alone, which I prefer (hardly anyone is as slow as I am). I listen to talk radio, podcasts and sometimes music. I try for at least 5 times a week. Then we’ve accumulated some weights at home for some resistance training, not as good as the gym.
The bikers just think you’re awesome. That’s all. They don’t know how else to tell you. You’re awesome.
Well, I hope that’s it, but it still seems kind of odd to me. I don’t think I’m awesome. I feel like I’m barely hanging in there.
I *know* that’s it.
There was this guy I used to see running on the same route every day twenty or so years ago on my way to work in a small town in NC. He was not older, but he was slow and overweight. He was really barely hanging in there most days. But he was always there. And he started to lose weight. And people started to recognize him. And in a month or two, some people started to tap on their horns whenever they saw him… short, friendly taps. Like… this was a thing. Every morning. You’d go by this guy, and people would as often as not acknowledge him in some way, this stranger on the road. They were saying “good job” like your bikers do to you. They were clapping for him, really.
That said, the run “nod” is the same thing. While we often walk alone in life, small encounters keep us “connected.”
I am glad you’re keeping in shape!
In addition to riding my bicycle indoors every evening now during the off season, I’ve been spending a couple hours outdoors each afternoon chopping firewood. We don’t burn wood anymore, but I’m hoping somebody who still burns wood will come and take it, even though cherry isn’t the best stuff. Back when we heated with wood I would not have paid the usual price for cherry, though having a little in a typical Michigan mix is OK.
This photo was taken early last week. The stack has extended further to the right since, and is getting close to the mowed path that one can see leading out back to the right of the stack.
One of the subsequent trees was not so large, but got hung up on other trees, which is a common problem. One of the reasons I’m thinning the trees out is to make our little woods into something more like a savanna, to let a little more light onto the ground and make more room for favored trees to grow. When trees get hung up on other trees such that they won’t fall, I use a come-along with chains and steel ropes to try to pull the base away from the direction where I want it to fall. That is also a lot of work, of a different kind. It’s not very cardio, but it helps me work my arm muscles and and a lot of others, too. I think I ruined the old 2-ton come-along I’ve had since the 80s by straining it too much and twisting it a bit. The tree was still hung up so I told my wife and son that it was too dangerous for them to be walking out there because that tree might decide to fall on its own, after all, and then bought a 4-ton come-along that was able to do the job.
I haul the small branches out to a brush pile out back, further back than the one that can be seen in the photo. I pull them by hand, taking modest quantities at a time, and get in quite a bit of walking that way. There would be faster ways to move those branches if I’d want to use my lawn tractor and a chain, but I kind of enjoy the walking time and watching my step count increase on my smartwatch. It’s a way to take a break from the more strenuous parts. I listen to books or work on language lessons while doing it, and enjoy the scenery. Today was perfect. The temperature was around 30F, and a very light, fluffy snow was falling. It’s the kind of weather that’s made for this work.
If I get all the trees cut down and cut up that I’d like to get done this winter, I’ll have a 2-3 more long stacks of wood to go along with the partial one in the photo.
I was going to explain my woes in doing this while getting over Lyme disease, but this has gone on long enough. The Lyme disease has turned it into a special challenge, and it was worse when I had a medically induced setback this week. But I think I’m back to being able to work at least a couple of hours a day at it without having to stop for an indoor rest. I’d like to be able to get in condition to work at it 8 hours a day, but at my age (72) those days are probably gone. And I really don’t want to spend that much time at this one project; even though I’d like to be able to.
I would have gone crazy during this coronavirus thing if we didn’t have our little acreage and lots of things to do outdoors.
I totally understand, which is why I moved from a condo in a city to a little house with some bunnies in the back as soon as I could.
That said, I think you have been very productive. My goodness! Laying eyes on that pile of wood, I feel pretty good about saying that OldPhil, you, and I worked out together yesterday for at least 100 hours (round about), so huzzah for collective exercise! :)
Actually, I love that I’m the only person who reported plain ol’ running because you guys remind me that regular work like shoveling snow or splitting wood are chores that can be good for the body (as well as the soul.) Maybe we as a country outsource these chores too often today when they are actually hidden opportunities to get in some cardio?
Hmmmm…..
Whatever anyone’s fitness goals–which often start with modest walks to just get “steps”–I hope everyone has an amazing Friday.
@LoisLane, for your poor husband, and all the other steel chuckers that miss the weight pile, I’d commend body weight exercises. Probably the best reference out their is Paul Wade’s Convict Conditioning. The cover looks intimidating (guy doing a one-armed handstand push-up), but it’s not.
“Coach” Wade provides a roadmap for squeezing max efficacy from 6 basic exercises: push-up, pull-up, leg raise, squat, handstand push-up, and bridge.
He takes you through 10 levels of each exercise. Each level has the minimum number of repetitions and sets before ascending to the next level. Each exercise also has an “exercise X-ray,” which shows you not only what you’re doing and why, but how the muscle group being worked is supposed to operate and how the exercise enhances that operation. His exercise X-ray on the handstand push-up is the best layman’s explication of how the shoulders work I’ve ever read, and worth the price of the book itself.
While the Level 10 for each exercise is an extreme feat of strength and fitness, the progression is imminently doable. Example: level 1 for the push-up is just doing the push-up standing up and using a wall. Pretty much anyone can do that, right? Level 10 for the push-up is a one-armed push up. Not a Rock Balboa, legs spread, mostly body tilting one-armed push up, but a feet together, regular-push-up-only-with-just-one-arm push-up. I know I’ll never get to level 10 on some of the exercises (my shoulders are too thrashed to ever do a one-armed pull-up), but the progressions are innovative, fun, and great work outs.
Allegedly, “Coach” Wade spent more than 20 years in various and sundry penal institutions, and he says (quoting from memory), “If you want to be motivated to be as functionally strong and fit as possible, try going to prison.”
Again allegedly, he got the idea for writing the book from one of the guards, whom he was training. “Man, nobody knows this stuff. You need to write it all down.”
Wow, @reticulator, what an impressive project. And you did all that while recovering from Lyme Disease??? Even more impressive. I hope your medical setback was temporary and that you’ll share more with us about the challenges you’ve faced as you recover.
You and my husband are definitely two of a kind. I hope we get to meet in person when the Covid craziness eases so you can commiserate. John got through the Covid isolation this summer and fall by doing a big drainage project on our property on the side of the mountain next to our driveway, removing and replacing many, many sloppily dumped creek rocks and having truckloads of larger ones brought in, then carefully placing them to minimize silt issues when it rains in our temperate rain forest corner of the world in the NC mountains.
When I wasn’t at a hospital with my mom in Florida I tagged along, pushing wheelbarrows of rejected rocks to the top of our driveway for pickup, and hand carrying better rocks down to get them ready for hubby to place them in his single-layer redesigned ditch that allows him to blow off any silt rather than have to move multiple layers of rocks to get to accumulated silt.
We know several people in their late 80’s and early 90’s because my husband developed a retirement community 30 years ago, and it seems that it’s the ones who took on projects like this and/or stayed active in a variety of ways through retirement who are still thriving. So chop on, @thereticulator!
I will try to get it to the house by Christmas! For my kid, too, who is training to qualify for SF.
Exactly!!!!!
Tell him that when he goes through selection (and I’m more than sure, through the Q-Course), if he limits his options to completion or death, everything gets easier.
To be completely honest, I had hoped he wouldn’t get selected to even try, but he was, so that’s that. My mother heart is torn about the next steps, but I love him, and I raised him to think for himself, even though your advice makes me that much more terrified.
I wonder if that book would be useful for those of us who will end our days in Hillary’s re-education camps. (Hillary is a generic term, btw.)
Just ordered for husband and son (and maybe me-sounds intriguing!) for Christmas, thanks.
Think about it this way: If he’s going to be in the military, he may as well get the very best training, equipment, protection, and leadership available. Also, SF guys are expensive enough that they are never regarded as cannon fodder. And one of the unofficial mottoes of SF is If you get into a fair fight, you’re doing it wrong.
Better there than anywhere else. Although, I’m an SF chauvinist, so salt my comments to taste.