The way I heard it expressed in a pithy meme was choose your hard
It’s hard to exercise and eat healthy every day.
It’s hard to live a life crippled by poor health and chronic illness.
Choose your hard.
Fixx’s downfall wasn’t running, it was a combination of hubris and ignorance. In one of his last interviews, he bragged about eating a crappy diet (loads of eggs, bacon, etc.) convinced that as long as he ran a lot, he’d be fine.
If urine isn’t a miracle substance why does my doctor insist on being given a container of it at almost every possible opportunity? Checkmate!
Reminds me of the throwaway line in Spynal Tap -
“Your last drummer choked on vomit, didn’t he?”
“Yes, but it wasn’t his…”
“You can’t really dust for vomit.”
Imagine a world where two hundred year old billionaires had to face the consequences of the things they had done back in the early twenty-first century.
Yeah, but exercise is hard for now me, and poor health is only hard for future me.
Of course, now that I’ve aged into future me, I realize past me was a jerk.
Another joke:
Doctor: “Mr. Smythe, does your urine burn?”
Mr. Smythe: “I’m not sure, Doc…to be honest, I’ve never really tried to light it.”
The “marshmallow test” may have had its issues and be oversold, but the basic idea of overvaluing immediate rewards compared to future gains, is pretty fundamental: “temporal discounting”, “future discounting”, Aesop’s fable of the ant and the cricket, whatever.
The commentary suggests a therapeutic intervention of imagining the future rewards more, and claims it has evidence.
Personally I don’t get why so many see habitual moderate exercise and consuming tasty decent real foods as something so hard to do. And the benefits are not only decades later but in current well being, psychologically as well as physically.
I’m fine at delayed gratification it when it comes to money. Exercise, not so much, though.
I’m fine on the food thing, but you’re another doctor, just like my GP, who doesn’t get why a bit of exercise is so unpleasant. You’re a person who likes it, which is great for you, but I can’t think of many things more unpleasant than spending the next 40 minutes doing some cardio or whatever. Biking, skiing, those are fun activities that happen to be exercise, and I’ll happily do.
I don’t quite understand it either. I think of it as a reverse addiction. When I actually do regular exercise I feel better, but I’ll still drop the exercise at the slightest excuse. Regular exercise also helps me get better enjoyment out of the physical activities I like, but somehow that still isn’t enough to make it a habit.
Not to derail this too much, because I do think eating well and regular exercise are completely on topic for a life extension thread, but they’re definitely not quick or easy. So a related question:
Any updates on the severe calorie restriction diet as a way to extend lifespan? We used to have a researcher where I worked that studied it in C. elegans, and for many years he followed the practice, too.
So bike a few times a week, at least when the weather allows. Even once a week has a huge payoff.
Or do something else fun that happens to be exercise … pickleball doesn’t appeal to me but lots of people enjoy it. Low barrier to entry. Hike with a pack on on weekends.
Still unproven for humans.
There’s some recent evidence on DNA methylation as a proxy for aging, but I’m not sure I buy the marker as all they crack it up to be.
Best recent I can find is this mouse study, and it demonstrates that even in genetically diverse mice it is … complicated.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08026-3
The part that jumped out to be was how the mice that lived longer didn’t necessarily live healthier.
Again I am pretty convinced that the biggest factor on lifespan is a genetic deal of the cards (and avoiding stupid deaths like by guns and smoking or car crashes). I am more interested in having a longer time being fully functional and able to enjoy things. Living hungry all the time? Not my jam.
Or…
“Do you smoke after sex?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never looked.”
I’m guessing they’re not getting refunds. Or any younger.