Haha! I don't. It is definitely not an exclusively American phenomenon. Any society where there is pressure to achieve, achieve, achieve and be perfect in every way, you will feel this angst. I don't think anyone achieves the 'balanced lifestyle', it's more of a thing to work towards. An asymptote, even. Is it even possible to achieve it, though? How much time do you have to dedicate to each of those things? I feel like this is worthy of a back-of-the-envelope calculation but I'm about to go for a walk (I am getting chubby) and see the sun and the sea. That'll hopefully soothe my existential angst for a while.
Diet is 90%. You cannot exercise enough to keep the weight off if you eat like shit every day. This is quite literally math. 1 hour of walking = 200 calories. 1 hour of running = 600 calories. great source You know how many calories is in, say, a bagel and cream cheese? 500. You know how long it takes you to eat it? 15-30 minutes, maybe? I guess a small specific example of "How do I eat healthy?" every day that helps explain some of my broader time management: Dude, I eat a salad. Every. Day. Every fuckin day at lunch I eat a soup and a salad. I get a small soup and the salad can be as big as I want because you know what? F'n veggies, that's what. You can eat as many vegetables as you want, any day, any time, even if you're trying to lose weight, especially if you're trying to lose weight. I used to just skip breakfast but I'd get hungry so now I have a yogurt, one of the nice greek yogurts, the shit that's got 25% of my daily recommended brotein (yes brotein) intake in it. For me, for eating healthy, what works is routine. Just today someone was giving me shit about eating the same thing for lunch every day. You know what? When I eat a yogurt for lunch and a salad for dinner, I can go out drinking that night and maintain my weight. If I just eat meat & veggies for dinner I can lose weight if I want. If routine is what works for you then do it. I eat soup and salad and yogurt every day because it helps me feel good about myself and the contribution I'm making, every day, to eating my veggies and maintaining my weight. Sure I could have had steak and fried potatoes for lunch. And yeah it would've tasted great! (I guess...I kind of like my soup/salad thing) but I wouldn't have made a step forward to being a healthier person. Be healthy today. Don't wait for tomorrow.
Depends. People mistake the purpose of exercise. The primary goal of exercise isn't to burn calories. The primary goal is to change the way your metabolism works, so that you can process food far more efficiently. If you exercise vigorously, it helps to change your sugar metabolism, making it easier to store more calories without converting them to fat, while reducing your insulin sensitivity, two very important aspects of health. Sugar (our most important source of calories) is stored in lean muscle, and thus, the more of it you have, the better your ability to handle its intake. If you eat sugar and can't store it due to lack of space, it gets converted to fat, which we basically don't have a storage cap for. So while diet is important, exercise is at least as important. I would skew that 90% figure pretty much to 50%.
I thoroughly appreciate your input. I clearly was considering things from a purely caloric point of view. I also know that doing things like lifting weights and building muscle mass will, in turn, increase your basic metabolism rate, so they benefit you over the long term and can potentially do things like give your diet more flexibility. I have been doing a plank challenge recently. I do find it hard to be as physically active as I'd like but I am also a wimp about the weather.
Yo that's why I built a gym in my condo. Weather don't mean shit to me anymore! But, unfortunately, I'm selling my place right now. In a matter of months I fear I'll be a lame suburbanite like the rest of the work-a-day world. No more 80s themed home gym for b_b :( Onward and upward. Marital bliss awaits!I do find it hard to be as physically active as I'd like but I am also a wimp about the weather.
It's refreshing to hear I'm not alone, but some people feign to have it figured out. Tibetan monks seem to live a harmonious lifestyle, but are they really contributing to society? Debatable. When you crunch the numbers, yeah, it's impossible. But that damn angst just won't go away! Thank you for the input. :)
I don't know. I manage most of these things. The one I am most likely to potentially fail at is "have interesting hobbies," I guess. I'm a member of two book clubs, read poetry for pleasure, and publish on my poetry blog about 3x/month. It doesn't feel like a lot, there is a lot more I could do. Those also sound like relatively boring hobbies to me, "Oh I read and write." Everything else, including "get enough sleep," I manage well - or well enough. That is, I haven't spoken to my mom in 2 weeks, but it doesn't bother me. I even tried calling her the other day! But I'm very close with my siblings so I figure they take up any "time void" that would be left by a lack of closeness with my mother. I consider "decent personal hygiene," "get enough sleep," and "keep fit and eat healthy" requirements, not options.
What other hobbies do I do. Hmm. Drinking?40+ hours weekly, practice decent personal hygiene, keep fit and eat healthy, nurture social, romantic, and familial relationships, stay well informed, have interesting hobbies, deal with unexpected hurdles, get enough sleep, and take time to pause for even just a few moments of reflection.