Health and Life Goals Thread

[Dalions]

That's sad to hear, I don't watch MSM news/current affairs at all... haven't for years, even before Covid started, full of clickbait, exaggeration and fear mongering IMO, my Covid updates come from my son, brother etc via text messages and I read some Covid threads on Big Footy.

Ah well not much we can do about it.

We can only hope that things improve before that decision is made.

 

[briztoon]

This lockdown is starting to give me the shits, gee I hope it doesn't get extended again, I really miss >
3- Walking in the open air and sunshine maskless, the rules re this are a bit ambiguous IMO, I have read it says you don't have to wear one if by yourself and then another that says you must have it on unless engaging in "vigorous" exercise. I hate masks at anytime but wear them when instructed to, to me they are dehumanising, not being able to see facial expressions, smiles, social cues is off putting.

Don’t know if you watched this mornings QLD briefing, but the CHO just raised the possibility of wearing masks in public until Christmas.

 

[MacMum]

I don't mind wearing masks wherever there are people.....while the virus is in this country I will continue to wear one. I know I don't have covid, but I don't know if a stranger/friend I pass or am talking too even at a acceptable distance, has it so imo it it only a small inconvenience to stay as safe as possible.

.....and if by having another lockdown again (our 6th) Im glad its a full week instead of 3 days which seems a waste of time and effort. A week might just get a new outbreak under some sort of control.

 

[M Malice]

Going to do an all day Yin and Vinyasa Yoga workshop today, followed by an hour of Hot Barre Yoga this evening.

Also looking forward to the Indian smorgasbord lunch... Namaste

 

[Sausages]

Well....I guess this is necro-ing a thread...BUT....it's only necromancy if I summon the OP back

That being said, I've received bad news today....well, disappointing news.......and as it's 1300 here in The Phon, I've decided to have a beer.

Or rather, MANY beers

I just need to vent. Not angrily nor aggressively. Just.....say things. To an audience.

I need no response - merely BELIEVING people have read is sufficient for the writing.

The news isn't overly problematic, it simply causes a disruption, a change of plans. The chaos that I live in right now is undeniably at play, and I confess to enjoying that. I have a postal address in Australia, but nothing else. I have a postal address in Thailand too for that matter. Pondering postal addresses seems somehow endemic of the latticework of life at times. Otherwise irrelevant or fringe details, with a change in circumstance, become critical loadbearers in the transition. Sometimes positive, sometimes not.

So, following my rough news, my wonderful girlfriend immediately offered to get me a beer. Well, that's not entirely accurate - I said I needed a beer and made a pathetic gesture at retrieving one, knowing full well that she would be only too happy to complete the energy exchange, her yin to my yang, thus magically manifesting a beer on the table. At this point, let us boldly depart from the now and back into the yore.

There was a time when that would have confronted me. The otherwise unremarkable fact of my girlfriend getting up to get me a beer. In times past, I would have adjudged myself as any one of boorish, blokey, chauvinistic, insensitive, sexist.....you get the idea. Prosaically, those are all assessments I would have made at The Time In Past X When I Thought I Knew Everything. Let me be clear - not ONE time....MULTIPLE times. There are MULTIPLE times in your life when you think "you have it figured out". For me, those times correspond roughly to 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, and 45. For reference, I am currently 51.

At each moment in life, there is a vast array of possibilities moving forward. And let's not be dullards - "quitting your job" is only an action, not a course of action. It does however put into effect changes that you are unable to foresee, nevermind assess. Likewise, "moving overseas", "dropping your girlfriend", "getting a divorce".....actions, that are part of or lead to a course of actions....but that share an underlying theme. In reflective likeness lurks "staying employed", "maintaining domestic stability" or "buying a house". The two preceding sets of examples are often characterised as change or stasis....or words to that effect. An old school Economist might suggest one side is prepared to pay opportunity cost and the other side is unaware of what it will cost.

But which is which, for an argument can be made for all sides.

Imagine how the argument changes, as one attaches an age to that last statement vis at age 25, quitting your job is better than staying employed. Don't worry about the specifics, because when you scale the argument up, they become mostly irrelevant details. Consider that question for a moment, using your own life as a metric. Had your employment status changed at 25, from EITHER one job to the next OR job to dole.....would that really have mattered, looking back now? At 20, I thought it did. At age 45, it had ceased to even be a question.

When I sat down and reflected on my life and my experiences, initially through the haze of mental illness, I came to understand some stark truths about myself, things I didn't really want to acknowledge even to myself, let alone anyone else. It doesn't matter what those specific things are, because as with the previous paragraphs, life is only ever subjective. It is it's strength and it's limitation. What matters, is that everyone has questions they wish to ask of themselves.....and they either don't know the cost or are simply prepared to pay it regardless.

Which is cool.

Where it gets rough is when you start asking questions of yourself and forget where to stop. Just as you wouldn't keep bench pressing 200kg until your arms and upper torso disintegrated, so to does the brain need to stop pursuing relentless avenues of self-inquiry.

Frankly, there becomes a limit to how much you want to know about yourself. I wonder what my life would've been like had I stopped that voyage of endless questioning at age 25....

 

[DERRINALPHIL]

Well....I guess this is necro-ing a thread...BUT....it's only necromancy if I summon the OP back

That being said, I've received bad news today....well, disappointing news.......and as it's 1300 here in The Phon, I've decided to have a beer.

Or rather, MANY beers

I just need to vent. Not angrily nor aggressively. Just.....say things. To an audience.

I need no response - merely BELIEVING people have read is sufficient for the writing.

The news isn't overly problematic, it simply causes a disruption, a change of plans. The chaos that I live in right now is undeniably at play, and I confess to enjoying that. I have a postal address in Australia, but nothing else. I have a postal address in Thailand too for that matter. Pondering postal addresses seems somehow endemic of the latticework of life at times. Otherwise irrelevant or fringe details, with a change in circumstance, become critical loadbearers in the transition. Sometimes positive, sometimes not.

So, following my rough news, my wonderful girlfriend immediately offered to get me a beer. Well, that's not entirely accurate - I said I needed a beer and made a pathetic gesture at retrieving one, knowing full well that she would be only too happy to complete the energy exchange, her yin to my yang, thus magically manifesting a beer on the table. At this point, let us boldly depart from the now and back into the yore.

There was a time when that would have confronted me. The otherwise unremarkable fact of my girlfriend getting up to get me a beer. In times past, I would have adjudged myself as any one of boorish, blokey, chauvinistic, insensitive, sexist.....you get the idea. Prosaically, those are all assessments I would have made at The Time In Past X When I Thought I Knew Everything. Let me be clear - not ONE time....MULTIPLE times. There are MULTIPLE times in your life when you think "you have it figured out". For me, those times correspond roughly to 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, and 45. For reference, I am currently 51.

At each moment in life, there is a vast array of possibilities moving forward. And let's not be dullards - "quitting your job" is only an action, not a course of action. It does however put into effect changes that you are unable to foresee, nevermind assess. Likewise, "moving overseas", "dropping your girlfriend", "getting a divorce".....actions, that are part of or lead to a course of actions....but that share an underlying theme. In reflective likeness lurks "staying employed", "maintaining domestic stability" or "buying a house". The two preceding sets of examples are often characterised as change or stasis....or words to that effect. An old school Economist might suggest one side is prepared to pay opportunity cost and the other side is unaware of what it will cost.

But which is which, for an argument can be made for all sides.

Imagine how the argument changes, as one attaches an age to that last statement vis at age 25, quitting your job is better than staying employed. Don't worry about the specifics, because when you scale the argument up, they become mostly irrelevant details. Consider that question for a moment, using your own life as a metric. Had your employment status changed at 25, from EITHER one job to the next OR job to dole.....would that really have mattered, looking back now? At 20, I thought it did. At age 45, it had ceased to even be a question.

When I sat down and reflected on my life and my experiences, initially through the haze of mental illness, I came to understand some stark truths about myself, things I didn't really want to acknowledge even to myself, let alone anyone else. It doesn't matter what those specific things are, because as with the previous paragraphs, life is only ever subjective. It is it's strength and it's limitation. What matters, is that everyone has questions they wish to ask of themselves.....and they either don't know the cost or are simply prepared to pay it regardless.

Which is cool.

Where it gets rough is when you start asking questions of yourself and forget where to stop. Just as you wouldn't keep bench pressing 200kg until your arms and upper torso disintegrated, so to does the brain need to stop pursuing relentless avenues of self-inquiry.

Frankly, there becomes a limit to how much you want to know about yourself. I wonder what my life would've been like had I stopped that voyage of endless questioning at age 25....

Have a read of Jordan Peterson's first book.

It will answer many questions for you.

One of the chapters is titled something like 'Pat a Cat' and talks about how important it is to enjoy, and concentrate on enjoying, the mundane, simple, enjoyable things that happen every day. He reckons you should never niss an opportunity to pat a cat.

 

[M Malice]

Have a read of Jordan Peterson's first book.

It will answer many questions for you.

One of the chapters is titled something like 'Pat a Cat' and talks about how important it is to enjoy, and concentrate on enjoying, the mundane, simple, enjoyable things that happen every day. He reckons you should never niss an opportunity to pat a cat.

Jordan Peterson cops a lot of flack, a few years back I decided to have a look at some of his long form conversations to see what all the bruhaha was about, what I found was a highly intelligent, compassionate, logical modern day philosopher, IMO he is great.

I would almost bet those that criticise him the harshest have only gone off minute or 2 soundbites taken out of context.

 

[DERRINALPHIL]

Jordan Peterson cops a lot of flack, a few years back I decided to have a look at some of his long form conversations to see what all the bruhaha was about, what I found was a highly intelligent, compassionate, logical modern day philosopher, IMO he is great.

I would almost bet those that criticise him the harshest have only gone off minute or 2 soundbites taken out of context.

He has developed into a purely political commentator in most leftist minds where he is essentially a clinical psychologist.

 

[Sausages]

Good morning from The Phon

Here in The Phon it is 0820, not a cloud in the sky. But probably rain later, that seems to be the process. Trawling through the familiar news sites, digesting the narratives from the world's media outlets. However, wisely if I feel, softened by reading scientific articles which sometimes yet beckon a future offering hope. Of course, as soon as that fancy passes, one is fashioned into a contest of wills with none other than Nietzsche, leading to a somewhat roughened solace. So perhaps not the outcome my sagely course desires.

Reading through the Non-Lions thread, and the conversation has recently been of the Dons and their fumbled CEO appointment, his religious affiliations having been instrumental in the PR calamity. Religion and sport typically make for fiery bedfellows. Consider the Old Firm, Celtic and Rangers. Even as late as the 1980's, you couldn't play for either team unless you professed to the appropriate denomination. I was chatting to a Glaswegian chap outside one of London's eleventy Hilton Hotels in June, and he was regaling me with tales of LAST SEASON'S meeting between the two clubs. Him in his late 50's, chuffed as all billy when painting the imagery of a group of supporters setting on a solo fan of the opposition "and gave 'im a right good thrashing" as their bus neared the stadium. Look, it's one of those things you politely laugh at whilst occasioning outrage, but the fact remains that one passion fuels the other in a perpetual dance.

The same week we hear of Sydney 58 and the behaviour of fans at the recent Cup final. The political and racial tensions that were inflamed are often referred to, but the identity of Croatia and the proud nationalism of many citizens also has it's roots in religion - Croats are Catholic by and large. Again, the passion aroused by a sporting contest fans the flames of other markers, other methods at detailing a belonging. Once you belong to one thing, it is then eminently natural to have oppositions to that thing which must be identified, if not engaged and defeated. The combative nature of sport, and especially contact sport, is enacted within it's own church, an arena of soaring emotions, hope sometimes fueled by hate.

But of course, this is the extreme of the sporting landscape. The moderate middle ground occupied by the vast majority of Australian sporting teams uses the economic cost of something as justification, as opposed to publicly aligning themselves to an extreme position justified on religious grounds Aside from the less evident divisive nature of this, is sadly the truth that there are some positives most faiths bring in social terms that help to bind people together. And pursuit of economic goals and shared sporting glory only go so far - the economic riches aren't typically directly shared with fans, let's face it. If you can get ya dollars worth giving a hapless victim a good thrashing, well, that's a positive.

Essendon staggered unceremoniously to the correct decision. Any Christian-based denomination occupying a fringe demographic isn't likely to be preaching an "open door" policy on worshippers. It may well preach tolerance, but that's going to be accompanied by a list of defects any inclusion into the ranks must first rectify before being fully embraced. For those who staunchly refute the ministry's fortified position on matters of moral significance, this will likely result in being disbarred from the congregation. Not the sort of look a footy club wants to promote - no good photo op's for jacket-waving Thorbie at the pulpit sadly.

So clearly, you have to stand for something. Unfortunately, if you put that question to any professional sporting club in the land, the responses could be easily predicted - every club pretty much stands for the same thing. Except the geographical. That's about the only hat we can hang our fiery footy passions on and not get into too much strife. And this is where footy reigns supreme. It is our proto-nationalism - your footy team represents a PLACE. Not just a place, but a place you care about. A place where you belong. Consider in relation to the world's mega-sporting franchises....Man City, Barcelona, Juventus, NY Yankees etc.....there's a geographical element to your presumed passion. Sausages' Law of Footy Passion Dynamics is that the further away you are geographically from the place your footy club represents, the more diluted your support is presumed to be. Nobody in Barcelona really cares that you support them from Tahiti. And moreover, you won't really care if they loose the next Classico - it'll suck, but you won't feel the sting of defeat in quite the same way as a Barca ex-pat who has to work with a bunch of Madrid supporters in the capital.

And this to my mind is footy's biggest attraction - it's not global. It's very much restricted to our shores. It doesn't need passion drivers like religion or ethnicity to propel it forward. Someone can support a footy club and never set foot in the suburban environment it was birthed in. But unlike with the global dilution, we inhabit a vibrant and passionate world when we don our scarves to watch the footy. We are connected to a place that is familiar yet distant. The efforts of clubs and members, supporters and academics, to provide a rich and varied diet of footy stories to flesh out the milieu of footy is a testimony to the passion of place. It's interesting to ponder the land upon which we play, the spiritual relevance it has for our First Nations' peoples, the size of continent and the ethereal cord linking that to tribal footy passion. Somehow, we each have a personal connection.

So rather than appoint another old boy, maybe the Dons should look further back in their history and remember who they are and where they come from. And maybe tell Sheeds it's time to move on.

 

[M Malice]

My long term health and life goal is to be able to do Pilates, Bikram Yoga, cycling and significant trekking into my 70s.

I have been thinking about the health part a little lately, even though I have a hereditary kidney disease which means currently I have 38% kidney function and had a rough battle with cancer(Chemo & Radiation) late 2019 I would class myself as in the top few percent re current health/fitness/vitality in my age bracket.

I would prefer to feel like I do now and suddenly drop dead of a massive brain aneurysm at 75 than live to 85 and feel crook, in pain and be unable to get around too well.

#qualitynotquantity

 

[M Malice]

Been really upping my attempts to be able to stay as active as possible for as long as possible, stumbled on this guy a couple of months ago and think he is fantastic in the strengthening and recovery space. He calls himself the KneesOverToes guy and has science literature to back up everything he says. His personal story about knee recovery is outstanding. I do his 10 step routine every day, + I also add the Asian squat as an 11th. Routine starts 1 minute in and only takes 15 minutes or so to perform. >


His website- ATG | Personal Training Reinvented

This particular 30 second hold has been fantastic for my knees and hips IMO, I haven't graduated to using weights yet >

 

[M Malice]

Personal Health story >

I had my latest PET scan last week and I was speaking to the Doctor before the scan and she was explaining how the scanner works, they inject you with a radioactive glucose solution, Cancer cells love glucose/sugar so the scan picks up what area of the body the glucose goes to to detect the possibility of Cancer. She specifically said yer Cancer cells love sugar.

Anyway that is not the reason for my post, after I finished the scan the Radiologist said I can go down to the discharge area and wait for the Nurse to remove the Cannula and there is cake, biscuits and tea/coffee there if I want it.

Cake and biscuits? Really.

I got the all clear a few days later.

 

[Crimso]

Personal Health story >

I had my latest PET scan last week and I was speaking to the Doctor before the scan and she was explaining how the scanner works, they inject you with a radioactive glucose solution, Cancer cells love glucose/sugar so the scan picks up what area of the body the glucose goes to to detect the possibility of Cancer. She specifically said yer Cancer cells love sugar.

Anyway that is not the reason for my post, after I finished the scan the Radiologist said I can go down to the discharge area and wait for the Nurse to remove the Cannula and there is cake, biscuits and tea/coffee there if I want it.

Cake and biscuits? Really.

I got the all clear a few days later.

Hope you didn’t add sugar to your tea / coffee.

 

[M Malice]

Hope you didn’t add sugar to your tea / coffee.

LOL! Didn't eat or drink, had some lamb chops when I got home.

 

[Grasshopper17]

Have you done the river loop much? I expanded from the half loop to the full loop for the first time on Saturday and it nearly broke me. Got to the top of Dutton Park and almost vomited!

2:02:26 which I'm hardly proud of but means I can aim for sub 2hrs next time.

That is a very steep hill if it's the one I think you're talking about... ? You go under the UQ Green Bridge and then wind your way up to Gladstone Rd?

You have probably cycled past me a few times, I go for an hour or more walk each day, I have several different routes I take but I always walk along the full length of Brisbane Corso, it's so quiet and peaceful during the week when most of the plebs are at work, weekends a different story.

I only use the bicycle when going to Yoga/Pilates in the early morning, leave home at 5.10am and it's only a 15 minute ride, the studio I go to is only 400 meters from the Gabba.

1:56:15 today. Progress! And I didn't feel like vomiting this time

 

[M Malice]

1:56:15 today. Progress! And I didn't feel like vomiting this time

I did an hour of Hot HIT Pilates this morning, didn't vomit but sweated like there's no tomorrow.

 

[Grasshopper17]

I did an hour of Hot HIT Pilates this morning, didn't vomit but sweated like there's no tomorrow.

Can you put your foot behind your head yet?

 

[M Malice]

Can you put your foot behind your head yet?

Lol! Not quite but I think I am pretty flexible for a 64 year old decrepit baby boomer.

 

[Grasshopper17]

Lol! Not quite but I think I am pretty flexible for a 64 year old decrepit baby boomer.

I can guarantee you'll be doing better than me. I've never even been able to touch my toes. Even when I was a kid.

 

[M Malice]

My son turned 39 years old today, life goes by way too quick.