I decided to take the Neurotic Angel out on my 48th
birthday and when we sat down, I told her that dinner was in honour of me
turning 48. She said, “You’re not bad looking for 48.”
This compliment of sorts was the first compliment I had received
on my looks for a while. Prior to that, the main comment about my “good looks,”
came from my mother who said that I was “gross looking.”
While I am past the age where the need to pose is part of
life, it felt pleasant to receive a compliment and how I did go from “gross
looking,” as defined by my loving me mother at 38 to “not bad looking” by
someone I had just gotten to know?
I am sure nobody will define me as “athletic” or “handsome”
but I appreciate the fact that my body remains functional, and nobody seems
worried that I may go into cardiac arrest if I walk more than a few metres
carrying a piece of paper. If you take the available literature at face value,
it looks like I may enjoy my 50s and beyond. This wasn’t necessarily the case
when I was in my late thirties and early forties. The army medical officer
booted me off reservist duty when he took my blood pressure.
What happened? The answer is simple -Covid lock downs made it
such that I adapted regular exercise (mainly walking but latter added body
weight) because it was the only loophole to get out of the house.
Whilst exercise isn’t the cure-all (weight loss remains
primarily focused on diet), it does make a difference in one’s wellbeing. However,
the reason why most of us avoid it and become “time-poor” the moment someone suggests
doing some form of physical activity as part of the daily routine.
Here’s the truth, exercise in all forms involves getting inconvenient
and uncomfortable. Let’s face it, the truth is, exercise involves getting
sweaty (which is especially uncomfortable if you live in the tropics) and sore,
with not very much to show for it in the immediate time frame.
Sure, everyone wants to look good (for guys its that six-pack
and for girls it’s that toned behind) but when we’re told that we need to get
uncomfortable, the desire to “look good,” dims and we start putting our minds
to all sorts of easier solutions like taking pills. Much as we complain about
getting “stressed” at our desk jobs, we’ll stay in them even if alternatives
paid as well because, well sitting at a desk is way more comfortable than say
walking around carrying stuff in a restaurant. When the body starts to show
signs of failure, we just put it down to aging.
However, when I think of my own physical imperfections, I’m
drawn to a quote by human biologist, Gary Brecka, who describes aging as “the aggressive
pursuit of comfort.”
https://www.tiktok.com/@garybreckaunscripted/video/7426089193551465734
Most of us avoid rigorous exercise, particularly from our mid-thirties
on wards because we avoid the things that make us uncomfortable. Talk to enough
of the professional middle class who have reached a certain level of “success”
and they’ll tell you “The days when I had to lift things and run around are
long over.” Its as if success is correlated with how much comfort you have or
at least how much discomfort you avoid.
We condition ourselves to pursue comfort and convenience. Modern
life is for the most part great. We are living far longer than our ancestors
could ever dream of and the peasants of today have more comfortable lives than
the kings of the past.
Yet, despite this, I’m reminded of a doctor who stated that “life
is not meant to be convenient.” He’s got a point. The human body, which
inevitably means the human mind is not designed for comfort and plenty but for
survival. Let’s go back to the concept of weight loss. It takes me two hours to
walk 10km and to burn around 500 calories. It takes me five minutes to put on a
thousand over calories by eating ice cream. Why? The body was designed to store
calories for periods when food was not available. Hence, it easily stores
calories and uses very few calories even in intense physical moments.
Survival is about adaptation and the body adapts when
challenged. However, when no challenges are around and things are comfortable,
the body will then start disposing of the things it does not need. Think of
muscle loss in older adults – it’s a case of “use it or lose it.” Let’s look at
every story of a morbidly obese person. The inevitable link between every morbidly
person is that they started becoming that way when they refused to leave their
bed, even for the most basic functions and then they reached a stage when they
were no longer able to move:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4313754/Super-morbidly-obese-790lb-man-leave-bed.html
What is true of human survivability is also true in the
corporate world. Businesses that survive are the ones that don’t get
comfortable where they are. Monopolies that dominate their market go extinct
when technology makes their monopoly irrelevant.
I love luxury and I like being comfortable. However, as I’ve
gotten older, I’ve understood that I can only enjoy what I have now if I am willing
to stay mobile and to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
I think of a recent holiday I had with the Pillow. We had
plenty to eat. We spent hours in a nice, air-conditioned room, lying in bed for
hours. It was great fun except when we had to go back to reality, we both ended
up getting sick. My nose behaved like a leaky faucet and after a week of not
doing intense exercise, I decided to start sprinting again. The four bouts of
sprinting I went through must have shocked the body because the sniffles seem
to have done.
Comfort in any situation is very nice. However, we need to
revive our thinking. Comfort is not the purpose of life. Our purpose is challenge.
Yes, there are certain inevitabilities like death and old age. However, if you
look at the quality of aging, you’ll notice the people who age the best are
inevitably the ones who continue to adapt and challenge body and mind until
they are no longer able.