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ciroccojThe Ottawa-Carleton School Board had a snow day today because of the million-jillion tonnes of snow that dumped onto our city over the last 48 hours. Cop cars and Canada Post trucks were getting stuck out there. However, we had a very important errand to run today, and the Mill of Kintail, where Chris normally takes the kids on Science Monday, was closed, so we decided to just walk it.
Almost 2.5 hours later we were back home, feeling profoundly grateful for our health and relative youth. It's a non-vicious circle we've got going here: we're young and healthy, so we walk a lot and exercise, which keeps us relatively healthy, which lets us keep exercising, which keeps us healthy. And it's the same with our kids. Many kids their age stay inside and play video games or watch TV a lot of the time. Ours play outdoors. So they get to move, and get used to being outdoors. Which makes playing outdoors pleasant. Which leads to them running around outdoors more. It's nice. We're pleased :)
Mind you, we weren't so pleased during TaeKwon-do today. After slogging through snow for 2.5 hours, resting an hour or so, then slogging back to the dojang and going grocery shopping while the kids did their class... well, let's just say that nine minutes of rope-skipping, 100 sit-ups and 100 push-ups weren't quite so much a "warm-up" as a "finish-off" for us. And then, of course, the real work started. Ugh.
I don't think I ever gave this the mention that it deserved, but one thing that really, really struck me hard when we went to Disneyworld was how few people walked. I had realized, as we planned out our holiday, that what we wanted to do would entail a lot of walking around. Looked forward to it. And suddenly thought of all the people with health problems, or severe weight problems, who don't have the luxury of being able to face five days of 10-hour days of walking with eagerness. Thought of the people who have to think to themselves, "OK, where are the rest stops, what's the shortest route between these two attractions, when is there transportation available, how will I keep the kids entertained without killing myself..."
Got to Disneyworld. Saw a lot of those people.
And what was really disturbing was... hm. Don't really know quite how to put this without sounding insulting.
::ponder ponder::
OK, here goes.
We saw a lot of people who very obviously needed some sort of assistance moving around. Very elderly folks, very overweight folks, folks with very small children, and others who in some obvious way were unable to blithely tramp around all day long with no ill effects. People who had their kids in strollers, or who moved around in scooters.
And we also saw a lot of people who didn't look like they had any good reason to need scooters. People who looked like they were in their fifties or sixties, instead of seventies or eighties. People who looked like they were maybe carrying a bit of extra weight, but nothing that would demand they stay off their feet. I'm sure many of them had invisible conditions that made scooters a necessity: back problems, joint problems, heart problems, MS, etc.
But. They couldn't all have been suffering from stuff like that; there were just too damn many of them. People who looked perfectly healthy and fit and able to walk around, but who took the option of scooters because hey, why not?
And, what was really and truly shocking, people with kids who looked as old as ten or twelve, in strollers. Now, I'm sure some of those kids were disabled in some way, but again, they couldn't all have been. Yet there they were, in strollers. Because, again: hey, why not?
Why not?
Because for Christ's sake, use it or lose it, people! Yeah, I understand, you're sixty-five and your feet would sure hurt by nightfall if you walked around with the grandkids all day, so why not take the scooter? And your kids are seven and ten and perfectly healthy, but they'll be whiny by the end of the day, so why not get a stroller for them?
Because. If, at age 65, you choose to scooter, then by age 75 you won't have the option of wheelchair/no wheelchair. And if you let your healthy ten-year-old not walk around Disneyworld, then it's very likely that they won't have the option of walking around with their own kids, by the time they're in their mid-thirties.
We were tired by the end of the day at Disneyworld. Dead tired. And Daniel and Justin did get kinda whiny by around dinnertime. But we also slept like the dead, woke up the next day with sore feet but happy spirits, and were able to keep it up for the entire holiday.
And we're not super-jocks (this was way before TaeKwon-do, BTW). We're just a regular family who believes that walking is good because (a) it's better for the environment and (b) either God or evolution - or both - meant for us to move.
I think part of what got me thinking about all of this was that right before we left on our vacation there were a bunch of specials - articles, news clips, etc - on the Super-Young: folks who, at the age of 60, 70, 80, 90, have the physiques of folks a whole lot younger. It's a topic of interest to us because Chris' brother Michael and his girlfriend April are deeply into age-defying stuff. And one of the huge, huge things that researchers have found keep people young is exercise. There's others too - good diet, working till very late in life, good community, strong faith, volunteer work, etc - but exercise is just ginormous as an aid to staying young.
So we'd seen all these videos of super-old people around the world, moving. A ninety-five-year-old great-grandmother in Colombia who still swept her entire house and yard, every day. An eighty-year-old man in Croatia who still walked with his sheep all day long every day, rain or shine. Ninety-something Seventh-Day Adventists in California, who still went to church every single day, and volunteered at soup kitchens regularly.
Yes, I know it gets harder as you age. I'm only 36 and already feel slightly more aches and pains than I used to. And Chris, though he's younger than me, had a serious accident in 2001 and thus feels the aches a little bit sooner in his once-broken leg and wrist. And I'm sure a lot of the older folk in Disneyworld had sciatica, fallen arches, bad backs, etc.
But you know what? I'd say the great-grandmother and sheepherder and Seventh-Day Adventists were probably feeling a few aches and pains themselves. And they weren't exactly turning cartwheels out there, but they were still moving, doing something with themselves, while a lot of other folks that age just didn't have that option any more.
All these thoughts swirled around my head while we were in Florida, especially upon seeing the prevalence of obesity around me. It's one thing to read half of Americans are overweight; 18 percent are obese, and quite another to see it. I really didn't expect to see much of a difference between here and there - we're in most ways pretty much the same culture, and besides, Canada has its own serious obesity problem too. But... god. It was visible, and deeply disturbing. Shockingly obvious, even more so than during our trip to California, because the weather was warmer this time and more people were wearing very little and/or over-heating very quickly.
I think what really brought it to a head was the day that we were at the hotel lobby and decided to walk down to the gatehouse, and were offered a ride on one of the little carts the hotel folks used to get around the grounds. We kinda chuckled, and started to walk, and the guy offering the ride said, "No, really, you don't have to walk - it's no problem, I'll drive you there."
And then we realized he was serious. He was being a nice guy, taking care of hotel guests, so that we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of walking all the way from the lobby to the gate house. And he really didn't understand why we didn't want to take him up on the offer. We had to reassure him that, really, no, really, we didn't mind walking. None of us did. Not even our kids. No, really.
The gatehouse was - I timed it - a ninety-two-second walk from the lobby.
Jesus H.
If a ninety-two-second walk is considered too onerous for a family of two mid-thirties parents and seven- and ten-year old kids... it's no wonder waistlines are ballooning and cars are the dominant species in North America. There's no need to move, and no encouragement to do so. We had a hell of a time walking to and from anywhere in Orlando - there were barely any sidewalks, few cross-lights, and nothing there to make walking pleasant or tempting - or even possible - most of the time. Everything was designed with vehicles in mind, and with minimizing moving time as much as humanly possible.
And we seriously wonder why there's a problem?
Almost 2.5 hours later we were back home, feeling profoundly grateful for our health and relative youth. It's a non-vicious circle we've got going here: we're young and healthy, so we walk a lot and exercise, which keeps us relatively healthy, which lets us keep exercising, which keeps us healthy. And it's the same with our kids. Many kids their age stay inside and play video games or watch TV a lot of the time. Ours play outdoors. So they get to move, and get used to being outdoors. Which makes playing outdoors pleasant. Which leads to them running around outdoors more. It's nice. We're pleased :)
Mind you, we weren't so pleased during TaeKwon-do today. After slogging through snow for 2.5 hours, resting an hour or so, then slogging back to the dojang and going grocery shopping while the kids did their class... well, let's just say that nine minutes of rope-skipping, 100 sit-ups and 100 push-ups weren't quite so much a "warm-up" as a "finish-off" for us. And then, of course, the real work started. Ugh.
I don't think I ever gave this the mention that it deserved, but one thing that really, really struck me hard when we went to Disneyworld was how few people walked. I had realized, as we planned out our holiday, that what we wanted to do would entail a lot of walking around. Looked forward to it. And suddenly thought of all the people with health problems, or severe weight problems, who don't have the luxury of being able to face five days of 10-hour days of walking with eagerness. Thought of the people who have to think to themselves, "OK, where are the rest stops, what's the shortest route between these two attractions, when is there transportation available, how will I keep the kids entertained without killing myself..."
Got to Disneyworld. Saw a lot of those people.
And what was really disturbing was... hm. Don't really know quite how to put this without sounding insulting.
::ponder ponder::
OK, here goes.
We saw a lot of people who very obviously needed some sort of assistance moving around. Very elderly folks, very overweight folks, folks with very small children, and others who in some obvious way were unable to blithely tramp around all day long with no ill effects. People who had their kids in strollers, or who moved around in scooters.
And we also saw a lot of people who didn't look like they had any good reason to need scooters. People who looked like they were in their fifties or sixties, instead of seventies or eighties. People who looked like they were maybe carrying a bit of extra weight, but nothing that would demand they stay off their feet. I'm sure many of them had invisible conditions that made scooters a necessity: back problems, joint problems, heart problems, MS, etc.
But. They couldn't all have been suffering from stuff like that; there were just too damn many of them. People who looked perfectly healthy and fit and able to walk around, but who took the option of scooters because hey, why not?
And, what was really and truly shocking, people with kids who looked as old as ten or twelve, in strollers. Now, I'm sure some of those kids were disabled in some way, but again, they couldn't all have been. Yet there they were, in strollers. Because, again: hey, why not?
Why not?
Because for Christ's sake, use it or lose it, people! Yeah, I understand, you're sixty-five and your feet would sure hurt by nightfall if you walked around with the grandkids all day, so why not take the scooter? And your kids are seven and ten and perfectly healthy, but they'll be whiny by the end of the day, so why not get a stroller for them?
Because. If, at age 65, you choose to scooter, then by age 75 you won't have the option of wheelchair/no wheelchair. And if you let your healthy ten-year-old not walk around Disneyworld, then it's very likely that they won't have the option of walking around with their own kids, by the time they're in their mid-thirties.
We were tired by the end of the day at Disneyworld. Dead tired. And Daniel and Justin did get kinda whiny by around dinnertime. But we also slept like the dead, woke up the next day with sore feet but happy spirits, and were able to keep it up for the entire holiday.
And we're not super-jocks (this was way before TaeKwon-do, BTW). We're just a regular family who believes that walking is good because (a) it's better for the environment and (b) either God or evolution - or both - meant for us to move.
I think part of what got me thinking about all of this was that right before we left on our vacation there were a bunch of specials - articles, news clips, etc - on the Super-Young: folks who, at the age of 60, 70, 80, 90, have the physiques of folks a whole lot younger. It's a topic of interest to us because Chris' brother Michael and his girlfriend April are deeply into age-defying stuff. And one of the huge, huge things that researchers have found keep people young is exercise. There's others too - good diet, working till very late in life, good community, strong faith, volunteer work, etc - but exercise is just ginormous as an aid to staying young.
So we'd seen all these videos of super-old people around the world, moving. A ninety-five-year-old great-grandmother in Colombia who still swept her entire house and yard, every day. An eighty-year-old man in Croatia who still walked with his sheep all day long every day, rain or shine. Ninety-something Seventh-Day Adventists in California, who still went to church every single day, and volunteered at soup kitchens regularly.
Yes, I know it gets harder as you age. I'm only 36 and already feel slightly more aches and pains than I used to. And Chris, though he's younger than me, had a serious accident in 2001 and thus feels the aches a little bit sooner in his once-broken leg and wrist. And I'm sure a lot of the older folk in Disneyworld had sciatica, fallen arches, bad backs, etc.
But you know what? I'd say the great-grandmother and sheepherder and Seventh-Day Adventists were probably feeling a few aches and pains themselves. And they weren't exactly turning cartwheels out there, but they were still moving, doing something with themselves, while a lot of other folks that age just didn't have that option any more.
All these thoughts swirled around my head while we were in Florida, especially upon seeing the prevalence of obesity around me. It's one thing to read half of Americans are overweight; 18 percent are obese, and quite another to see it. I really didn't expect to see much of a difference between here and there - we're in most ways pretty much the same culture, and besides, Canada has its own serious obesity problem too. But... god. It was visible, and deeply disturbing. Shockingly obvious, even more so than during our trip to California, because the weather was warmer this time and more people were wearing very little and/or over-heating very quickly.
I think what really brought it to a head was the day that we were at the hotel lobby and decided to walk down to the gatehouse, and were offered a ride on one of the little carts the hotel folks used to get around the grounds. We kinda chuckled, and started to walk, and the guy offering the ride said, "No, really, you don't have to walk - it's no problem, I'll drive you there."
And then we realized he was serious. He was being a nice guy, taking care of hotel guests, so that we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of walking all the way from the lobby to the gate house. And he really didn't understand why we didn't want to take him up on the offer. We had to reassure him that, really, no, really, we didn't mind walking. None of us did. Not even our kids. No, really.
The gatehouse was - I timed it - a ninety-two-second walk from the lobby.
Jesus H.
If a ninety-two-second walk is considered too onerous for a family of two mid-thirties parents and seven- and ten-year old kids... it's no wonder waistlines are ballooning and cars are the dominant species in North America. There's no need to move, and no encouragement to do so. We had a hell of a time walking to and from anywhere in Orlando - there were barely any sidewalks, few cross-lights, and nothing there to make walking pleasant or tempting - or even possible - most of the time. Everything was designed with vehicles in mind, and with minimizing moving time as much as humanly possible.
And we seriously wonder why there's a problem?
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no subject
Date: 2007-12-04 04:56 am (UTC)Oh, and I'm right there with you about how homeschooling makes us better able to keep our kids active and in better health. I'm finding the difference especially striking for EK's age, middle school/high school girls. With the exception of a few sports enthusiasts, the female traditionally-schooled kids are having their success as humans defined by how much time they spend with their asses planted in a chair, doing more studying for the standardized tests and college admissions. Kids are driven instead of walking or riding bikes because it takes too long to get there.
I like the time that I have with homeschooling. Time for exercise, time for family, time for healthy meals, time for things that will matter for the rest of their lives. And for the rest of mine.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-05 02:10 am (UTC)And it's bizarre how people seem to feel a good life = as little movement as possible.
Oh, and I'm right there with you about how homeschooling makes us better able to keep our kids active and in better health.
OMG I know! I swear when I look at all the stuff we do, and how we do it, the old joke "We took up home schooling because we don't have time to send our kids to regular school" becomes less funny and more true. I don't know how the hell I would ever manage if I had my kids in TKD, swimming, Spanish, Beavers & Cubs, and D & D (all things they love - well, maybe except for Spanish) and also had to help them with homework/projects/special events/fundraisers etc etc for school. I can't see us being able to maintain that kind of schedule without a serious breakdown, uppers, or a time turner.
I like the time that I have with homeschooling. Time for exercise, time for family, time for healthy meals, time for things that will matter for the rest of their lives. And for the rest of mine.
WORD.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-04 05:10 am (UTC)And now that I have my car and my license? I don't do as much walking, but I can now reliably get myself to work. I really should get back into the habit of walking again....
no subject
Date: 2007-12-05 02:31 am (UTC)Yeah, it's a bit of a pain sometimes, but it's also a good opportunity to think, take a breather from the rest of life, etc etc. And feel all virtuous ;)
During the five years I went to college, I routinely walked 30 minutes one way to school, because my house is about two miles or so away. Some semesters I would walk at least an hour a day
One of the things I find weird about our culture is that many people would say that's excessive, and such a bother and such a waste of time... but wouldn't blink if you said you drive at least an hour a day.
I really should get back into the habit of walking again....
It's a good habit to keep :)
no subject
Date: 2007-12-04 06:20 am (UTC)Living in New York, I walk everywhere. I walked a mile and a half during one portion of my night, coming back from a theatre, and then walked quite a bit more later this evening -- and that's totally regular for me. It's a half mile or more to all of my class buildings, and I always, always walk, because it's the quickest way of getting there in this city. And I have friends who come to visit and -- these are young, healthy adults with no health problems that would prevent them from walking -- they whine and complain or, on occasion, are actively angry that we're walking everywhere. And I just -- there are no other options. The subway doesn't go to every street corner. Taxis are expensive. The bus is incredibly slow. So we walk.
How is this an issue! How! I see ancient women holding onto walkers hiking down the sidewalk every day -- my friends should not be complaining.
I think, too, this is why New Yorkers (rudely) joke that you can always tell who the tourists are, because they're the slow, obese ones blocking the sidewalk in front of you, looking bewildered. Whereas the New Yorkers are the ones darting around them and sprinting across the street as the light changes. We like to keep it moving. And that means, we walk.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-06 05:07 am (UTC)Yeah, I read this book once called "Divorce Your Car!" that said all sorts of complimentary things about New York and carlessness. I boggled at the thought of a modern urban centre where (at the time) 60% of households had no car. ??!!
they whine and complain or, on occasion, are actively angry that we're walking everywhere.
Yeah! Like it's an affront to modernity or something, that we should be expected to use our feet.
I think, too, this is why New Yorkers (rudely) joke that you can always tell who the tourists are, because they're the slow, obese ones blocking the sidewalk in front of you, looking bewildered.
::choking::
no subject
Date: 2007-12-04 06:03 pm (UTC)In Chicago, the local Bally's that we worked out at had an escalator to go up and down seventeen steps. Yeah, that right, there was an escalator that led to a health club and yes, it was used a lot. On the other hand in Montreal, there are a hell of a lot less escalators and a lot more variety of fresh food and veggies. So, do I find Canada a lot healthier than the us... well yes, at least in my experience.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-06 05:12 am (UTC)I noticed a big difference between here and Europe, too. Not that there aren't overweight people in Europe, but there's visibly fewer of them and most of them still look fit anyway, you know? Like, carrying some extra pounds, but still perfectly able to move around.
In Chicago, the local Bally's that we worked out at had an escalator to go up and down seventeen steps. Yeah, that right, there was an escalator that led to a health club and yes, it was used a lot.
::sigh::
On the other hand in Montreal, there are a hell of a lot less escalators and a lot more variety of fresh food and veggies. So, do I find Canada a lot healthier than the us... well yes, at least in my experience.
I've only been to Montreal a few times, but it seems like a pretty healthy city. Good public transportation, lots of people out and about. I wouldn't mind going there more often :)
no subject
Date: 2007-12-04 10:34 pm (UTC)Hell, you were a LOT politer than I would be. My response is usually, "Get up off your lazy ass and walk."
Now, admittedly, I almost always take the free bus out to the parking lot. It's about a mile and a half or so from the part of campus where I work, so spring, winter, fall, and really hot summer days, I ride the bus. (Plus, the weight of the books and my penchant for heels =/ good walking.) But I usually prefer to walk anywhere else around campus, b/c why wait for the bloody bus when the walk will take you five minutes?
no subject
Date: 2007-12-06 05:15 am (UTC)LOL!!
(Plus, the weight of the books and my penchant for heels =/ good walking.)
Oy, heels are for choir and dates only, for me. I love how they look... don't love having to run after kids while wearing them. I'm with you on the book thing, though for a while there the bulk of my backpack wasn't so much due to my law tomes, but to Justin's food supply ;)
no subject
Date: 2007-12-06 01:22 pm (UTC)I know
I want to be one of those grandmothers you mentioned, but here I am sitting at the computer. DS really wants to go outside to play in the snow, and I'm stalling him with every excuse in the book: it's cold (it's only 15 F), it's early, I'm not done with my coffee, I've got "work" to do... Truth is, I really don't want to go outside. I don't enjoy it, especially when the world is covered in snow. :(
Ok, I'm getting whiny.
But not offended. :D
no subject
Date: 2007-12-08 02:18 am (UTC)Yeah, I'm pretty lucky - a lot of stuff we need is close by. The grocery store is within a twenty-minute walk, 10-minute bike ride. TaeKwon-Do and our bank are in the same mall, our dentist is a 10 min walk, 5 min ride, Dairy Queen, a curry house, a shawarma shack and Beavers/Cubs are all at about 20m walk/10m ride, the library is 40/20... it's nice.
Part of that is luck, part of it is because we consciously chose a lot of stuff based on proximity, and unfortunately, not a lot is a pleasant walk/ride away. It's all major, noisy, unnattractive streets. We can't take a leisurely walk down to Dairy Queen, chatting together; the kids talk and the grownups talk, but we don't talk to each other because the noise of traffic overwhelms our voices if we're not at the same height. It's icky.
There are few sidewalks, crosswalks, etc. :(
Yeah, we've got sidewalks, but the lights suck.
Truth is, I really don't want to go outside. I don't enjoy it, especially when the world is covered in snow. :(
Ohgod I hate the winter. It's frigging freezing, and cold, and all I want to do is curl up on my couch with a laptop 24/7. Fortunately for my health, if not my immediate happiness, my kids are totally get-'em-out-before-I-kill-them types. Daniel was a superhyper kid and Justin we called Stitch because he was relentlessly destructive and loud. Daniel's no longer superhyper and Justin is still loud but no longer destructive, but they pretty much forced me to become an outdoors person despite myself and it's stuck. I feel like W.C. Fields ("A woman drove me to drink, and I never had the decency to thank her") - my boys drove me outside, and I don't know whether to thank them or not" ;)
But not offended. :D
LOL! Good to hear.