Jack Lalanne telling it like it is forty years ago. Each word still rings true today! I urge you all to watch :)
Rather an unimaginative title for my first blog post but I'm still only tentatively dipping my toes into this so-called "blogging". I'm sure they'll get better soon
I intend over the coming posts to talk about three of the things that take up a lot of my time. Unsurprisingly those three things are Eating, Running and Climbing. A broad-brush group of topics that I'm sure will widen considerably as the posts go on.
For today I wanted to talk about this video from recently deceased US fitness king Jack Lalanne. Now, not many of us in the UK will have heard of him unless any of us have had the propensity or desire to call a "star jump" a "jumping jack". That will be his transatlantic influence!
Anyway, I was struck about how relevant his words seem some 40 years after this video was made. The way he describes the miserable, downtrodden faces of those on his local "streetcar" despite all their "modern conveniences" that, by all accounts, would seem downright archaic to us is strikingly relevant to anyone who has ever had to endure a rush-hour tube.
"People have gotten so far away from the way they should be living that they've lost the ability to be happy anymore" laments Jack. Could there be a better way to sum up the general malaise with which people tend to live their lives now? People wait endlessly for the next paycheck, the next gadget, the next quick fix and, dammit, they've been waiting for nigh on 40 years and not a damn thing has changed!!!
Now, whilst I admire Jack and his many achievements (including working out 7 days a week until the very day he died at the tender age of 97) there are a few things I disagree with him about such as his mantra of "If it tastes good, spit it out!". Ugh, I could not think of a more miserable existence than one that involves solely bland food designed for sustenance and nutrition only. In a way I think this mantra stems only from the culture that Jack fought so hard to bring down. If fast food companies hadn't pumped their food with addictive additives that create desires that can only be satiated by further consumption of the very same additives and describe it as a "great taste" there would be no need to spit out tasty food!! If it tastes "good" for these reasons then by all means spit it out! If it tastes good because it has been cooked from scratch and flavoured with natural herbs, spices, sweeteners (such as honey, fruit, agave...) then devour away!!
So I guess thats why I wanted to write about my aforementioned topics. I am a firm believer that a good diet and a modicum of exercise can alleviate all but the most deep-seated depressions (excluding, of course, medically diagnosed depression) and so would most people who blog/write/about food or exercise but I do believe there is still a culture that deems the two spheres quite separate.
The fitness and exercise community tend to advocate healthy eating (naturally) but eating that is designed at sustenance to fuel a workout and not fuel our tastebuds. No carbs after seven? No thanks!!
And whilst the food community of the Jamie Oliver ilk (of which I would not be ashamed to align myself with) pay the natural lipserivce to getting fit and healthy alongside eating well it never goes beyond the occasional government-led 30 minutes, three days a week mantra.
There is a real lack of committed foodies AND fitness fanatics....at least not ones that write about it! I'll probably be too busy climbing or running to ever experiment with Soux-Vide beef and too enthusiastic about baking (and eating with jam and butter) my own bread to ever get a washboard stomach and I'm sure there is a whole community of people out there who feel just the same and THEY are probably too busy to blog about it!! Lets see he how it goes!!
