I have been watching some 80s movies like Ghostbusters and Beverly Hills Cop. They show in some of these films health nuts. These health nuts take vitamins, drink bottled water and go to the gym 4 times a week and/or jog 4 times a week.
Nowadays all of those activities are mainstream.
Two questions. Were people who took vitamins, drank bottled water and went to the gym 4 times a week or jogged 4 times a week in the 1908s - were they health nuts?
Second question - how would you show someone was a health nut if you were making a movie in 2008?
Was this the wrong forum for this?
Boy the times have changed, haven’t they?
When I started work in the '80s one could also smoke in the office and cafeteria.
A few years ago I watched an “old” Newhart episode (from the 80s) where a new fitness joint opened, and they were discussing the viability of such a place. They questioned whether or not anyone would actually attend. So, it’s indeed safe to say that in the 80s fitness and health were viewed much differently than today.
Gyms and healthy lifestyles were indeed for nuts, and the rest of us smoked at work and ate and drank whatever the hell we wanted.
Richard Simmons saved us all though.
Weightlifting was frowned upon because it would make you musclebound. No cross training. There were no popular gyms in the 60 and 70s. except Golds and local establishments.
Hell, I remember when you could smoke in the freaking library! That was the late 60’s/very early 70’s though.
I also remember when you could buy beer at the movie theatre (just tap, and one brand only).
What, you never heard of the YMCA?
Back to the OP, I think a “health nut” today could be shown in the same way, only it would have to be someone taking it to an absolute extreme. Like someone grinding up grass in their blender to drink, or is constantly jogging in place every minute of the day.
Question: When did selling bottled water really take off? I mean in individual (20 ounce) bottles? It was always available in gallon jugs at the grocery store, but I don’t recall when you could start buying it at gas stations and such.
These days? A body ripped to shreds and cabinets filled with supplements. Not that it’ll work; physical fitness and health is not the same thing, although health nuts rarely understand that.
If I recall the 80s correctly (and yes, while smoking was everywhere, bottled water was nowhere), folks did want to be physically active–but the idea of working out as we know it today wasn’t really there.
I seem to recall that physical activity was more “fun and games” than “work,” if that makes any sense at all–for example, I remember people who would play squash after work three times a week. Others were active tennis players, some booked ice time at a local rink to play pickup hockey, and still others would play in a softball or touch football league. While Jane Fonda set the example and some people did go to the aerobics classes that were becoming popular, nobody went to a “spinning class” or used a treadmill as they do today. Running wasn’t quite as looked down upon as you might think, since it helped you play sports. Which you did to have fun and keep in shape; you didn’t need to go to a gym to work on machines. If you did, you were a health nut.
Today? Well, I like pkbites’ suggestion about grinding grass in the blender. Or the person who takes a whole day to buy groceries due to the necessity of reading the nutrition information on every label in the store, buying only products that are organic. Or who needs some kind of counselling because they missed a workout two years ago and they feel guilty. Or who blows off important engagements (weddings, funerals, etc.) because of their need to go to their workout.
People were concerned about fitness during the eighties. I went to college in the eighties. Plenty of people ran, biked, lifted or whatever. The machines were a lot less sophisticated, but that’s about it. Marathon training was a huge fad, though triathlons were still a niche activity, IIRC. It didn’t strike me as much different from today. You had a bunch of people who didn’t exercize at all, a bunch who worked out a few hours a week, and a small number who really made a lifestyle out of it.
The stop smoking movement seems to be only tangetially related.
I first heard the term “designer water” when I was in college, in the early 80s. It wasn’t ubiquitous, but that was when bottled water was actually being sold. It was around '84 that I noticed there were choices in bottled water.
Meh, I still think bottle water is for the birds.
How about the whole veganism/vegetarianism craze? That’s still considered sort of wacky by a lot of people.
MPSIMS? IMHO?
Actually, I think this might play well in General Questions.
I do not see a debate, so off it goes.
[ /Modding ]
When I was a kid in the 60’s, nobody ever even heard of “jogging.” My dad had always been into fitness, and he used to run in the neighborhood when NOBODY ever did this. The neighbors thought he had a screw loose. It became a mainstream fad when the book Jogging was published in '66 (although my dad was running probably 7-minutes miles, quicker than a jog).
The 80’s were relatively advanced compared to that.
Didn’t it start with Grease!? Olivia went off to her video “Let’s Get Physical” and John Travolta did his movie about picking up chicks in the local fitness club. That and Richard Simmon’s Sweating to the Oldies. I too remember the days of smoking on airplanes and in movie theaters…
I think it’s the same then as it today: the fashion sense. Even today wearing leotards or full body spandex, sweat bands and bracelets, and leg warmers, will get you branded a fitness nut. See Ben Stiller’s resume…
I ran (in the streets) throughout the 70’s and while it was not as common as it later became, it was not considered odd. I also recall having running shoes for most of that time.
However, this was in NYC. It is quite possible that in other parts of the country there was less of this kind of behavior.
That movie was called Perfect by the way. I saw it a few years ago and I thought the people depicted were “Health Nuts” at least in terms of their gym habits…In their sex lives on theother hand…
I read an informed article a year or two showing that prestigious bottled water is far from new. Some of the wells, springs, and everything else have been in use as a commercial venture for over 100 years. People in say, 1890 loved bottled water and sought out different sources of it for both taste and therapeutic purposes. Relatively safe and clean public water killed the trend for a number of decades but it the bottled water market started to bounce right back over the last 20 years or so.
Jane Fonda launched phase 1 of the fitness craze of the 80’s. Aerobics and other group training got their foothold. Joe Weider also took a foothold in the mid 1980s, especially as body builder Ahnald jumped to the silver screen in viable roles.
The 80’s laid the groundwork for franchised gyms, group class, sport drinks, body building and even martial arts, as guys like Chuck Norris became celebrities.
A health nut in the 80’s drank protein shakes they made themselves from powders, might have worn leg warmers and probably subscribed to Joe Weider’s "Muscle and Fitness’’. GNC is where you would be seen buying your goods.
Hm… possibly the more pampered, elite spa look would be one way to depict a health nut today. Now sitcoms tend to show people going on “spiritual retreats” where a sitcom of the 1970s would have them go to some kind of fitness camp. I think the focus has changed a bit.
That or the portrayal would be “extreme athlete” instead of “health nut” and would have the people rock climbing or doing some other advenure sport (like all the guys in Failure to Luanch).
Let’s not forget that in “Heathers” Perrier (bottled spring water) is planted on some bodies to indicate that the deceased were gay (amongst other more obviously suggestive items).
IIRC it Winona Ryder’s character protests, saying “hey, bottled water’s come a long way.”
Christian Slater replied, “this is Ohio.”
That was 1989. Judging by that, bottled water was still considered effete in some parts of the country.