Where did Self-honesty go?
Today I’m in the gym and after my workout I decided to run for 20 to 30 minutes on the treadmill. After about 5 minutes a nice young lady came up and began to run on my right. I looked over and asked her how fast she was going (you got it – what ever speed she said she was going, I was going to be going a little faster. Why – because it made her laugh and brightened her day and made a boring run a little more entertaining. After about 10 minutes she looked over and said well I should be able to out run you – I guess she was referring to my age – but she didn’t haha!
Now on my left was an older gentleman – 4 years older than me to be exact. As the young lady and I were joking around, he jumped into the conversation and said “Well when you hit 60 it won’t be so easy, because that’s when you get arthritis, gout, aches and pains and you’ll be lucky to even move at this age.”
Well I’m sorry but I am fully aware that we are all victims of our own demise – soooooooooo – I replied with, “Are you taking all precautions to prevent future attacks like maintaining adequate fluid intake, weight reduction (he was at least 50 to 60 lbs overweight), making dietary changes, reducing your alcohol consumption, and taking the appropriate medications to lower the uric acid level in the blood.”
No response.
About 5 minutes later he chipped in again with, “Now all my teeth have started falling out.”Âť I immediately realized that he was seeking attention, which to be honest is perfectly OK because we are all seeking attention in our own way (like writing blogs) – BUT – he kept going, and going. Finally if I had any hope of enjoying any part of my run I stated, “If we don’t care for our body when we are younger it will break down that much faster when we get older. So now you will need to double your efforts, and take extra good care of yourself from here on out.”
His response, “I used to do 10 miles a day, then I went down to 5 and now I’m down to 1 mile, I mean what’s the point the world is in such bad shape there’s really no reason left to care.”
Now if you are reading this blog chances are that you don’t see life this way, but I assure you that you are the minority. With over 65% of N. Americans over weight, it proves that we are finding to many excuses to justify our condition and not enough self-honesty to turn it around.
