I’m pissed off.
On my walk home from the coffee shop where I write I just:
- Had smoke blown in my face 3 times.
- Overheard a women with a 16oz smoothie in her hand complain she can’t lose weight.
- Saw a “going out of business” sign on a local fresh produce store go up.
- Watched a smoker throw their butt carelessly on the ground.
- Saw a group of kids eating fast food.
- Listened to people complain about the heat over and over again.
This was all within a 10min walk
What The Hell Is Going On?
Why do so many people smoke when they know it’s both disgusting and going to kill them?
Why do people constantly say “tired” when asked how they are?
Why do people eat junk food when they know it’s vile?
Why do we need to read books to teach us systems on how to be a good person? Rule #1: If you don’t like being treated like a dick, don’t be a dick yourself.
Why can’t people make time?
Why do we over value metrics and under value relationships?
Why do people feel they need to find the “magic pill” when it comes to nutrition without following the basics?
Why are the majority of people walking down the street in terrible shape? I don’t care if you have a six pack, just take care of yourself so you’ll be around when your kids graduate college.
Why do people brag that they got drunk over the weekend?
Why do people feel they need to be rewarded for a workout?
Why do people do more research into finding the hottest restaurant than the fitness professional they hire or magazine workout they follow?
Why do people complain about it being too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter?
Why does it take gimmicky systems to get people to exercise like CrossFit and Tough Mudders? You want to burn fat, move. Do it often and find a way that you enjoy doing it. Do it with a friend, jump up and down. I don’t care. Just move.
Why do we complain that Governments don’t regulate things bad for us instead of taking responsibility for ourselves?
Why are intelligent people still tricked into thinking whole grain and 10% less fat is good?
Why do people work their assess off all week in a job they hate so they can blow their hard earned money at a club or bar where they are treated like second class citizens by some dude guarding the entrance?
Why would people rather spend a fortune on clothing that “hides their problem areas” than spend the money on fitness to lose the fucken weight and look 1000x better in a white t-shirt and jeans?
Seriously. What The Hell Is Going On?
I don’t get it. This incessant need to game the system and skip the line is nonsense. Everybody is trying to get a deal and metaphorically arrive at the airport just before the flight leaves just to say they can. The proverbial need to find the secret that nobody else knows is a joke. There is no secret so stop buying into the crap.
I can’t go for a walk without being disgusted at what’s going on around me. So yeah, what the hell is going on?
photo credit: Gianni Dominici
Gotta say i think this is your worst blog i usually love your stuff, but ranting about how kids are eating a takeaway, come on man. I eat a takeaway a week, does that mean im not interested in fitness?
My 8% bf says overwise, but if you saw me eating it tonight im like them too?
Keep up the good work, this wasnt a piece id expect from you
I’m glad you normally like my stuff Zee and sorry you didn’t like this. I respect and value anybody who reads my stuff. I’m both honoured and humbled by it.
All of the above are things that I don’t understand. They make me angry. If you make the conscious decision to eat fast food but have an otherwise healthy lifestyle that’s your choice. I also eat fast food once in a while and I don’t condemn anybody who does. What does frustrate me is the amount of young people who eat junk every day. It’s become a part of their lifestyle for a variety of reasons. It’s cool to eat a hamburger for McD’s from lunch. A kid who brings a healthy lunch is ostracised to the point where they might sacrifice that healthy meal just to be with the in crowd.
As always, this blog is my vantage point. I might not be right and I’m constantly growing. For the past while I’ve felt dissociated from society for a number of different reasons. Almost as if I don’t belong. These are just a couple of reasons.
We make thousands of decisions every day, and of course we are responsible for these decisions and their outcomes. However, I feel society is greatly influenced by the media. Take a look at Top 40 mainstream music for example, most of it consists of club beats encouraging the listener to get drunk and act immoral. We live in a society where many of us idolize these artists and we tend to act the way they portray themselves in their music and videos. Then of course we have MTV, which doesn’t really need much explanation, and I don’t want to start another rant on top of yours Jon.
Next time you watch TV count how many alcohol, and fast food commercials there are in a 30 minute episode. I think there is a lot of garbage out there reaching our subconscious mind and developing poor lifestyles.
I feel your pain Jon.
One of the many reasons I don’t own a tv…
Jon,
This is like a list of most of my pet peeves.
A few years back I helped run a kid’s day camp. The field trips were the worst because I had to watch all the kids eat at McDonald’s. Nothing kills me like watching kids eat fast food. Nothing.
Nothing kills me more than kids making fun of other kids who don’t eat fast food.
I feel the same way bro.
Why is a medical housing facility for sick children funded by McDonalds?
Somebody has to. I’m not so upset about that. It’s just brand management. Interesting that out of all the above points most so far have picked out the children eating fast food though.
I genuinely think of junk food (and high sugar “health” foods) as every bit as addictive as cigarettes. So, to me, that’s what’s going on.
Yes, I get there’s the dude who wants to eat crap on his off day. If you’re in good shape and healthy, and if that’s what you consider a treat, then I guess go nuts and enjoy!
But in most cases you’re trying to have a rational conversation with a junkie. Never more clearly evident than in the insanity they’re prepared to put themselves through in a gym, but suggest they modify their diet? Woah, steady on there! Too much effort!
Don’t even get me started on smokers… especially the ones with their kids stood right next to them.
“Why are intelligent people still tricked into thinking whole grain and 10% less fat is good?”
Probably the most underrated and least understood thing that you mentioned. People have been conned and brain washed beyond salvation.
Awesome points overall.
I agree, as dystopic as it sounds we are a brainwashed society in this industrialized world we live in. We are not the most logical creatures. We use our intuitive and unreliable right side of the brain to make decisions, meaning that we base our decisions on emotion rather than rationale. The right side of the brain responds to photos, bright colors, and things that stimulate or senses such as taste and smell. This explains why many of us make the decisions that we do, because it feels good at the time, not because it is necessarily good for us. We are always constantly subject to advertisements that target the right side of our brain, and like I said in my previous post the majority of advertisements you see on TV are not for healthy food and fitness promotion.
I hope this helps you understand why you are noticing the types of things that you are Jon. It seems you utilize the left side of your brain more when it comes to making decisions which I think I have noticed while following you. You are logical, analytical, you rely on reason, you question instinct and you form strategies and create structures.
Make sense?
Most people are like water – taking the path of least resistance. When culture has made it okay to be selfish, loud, fat, etc – why bother being different?
Finally!!! honesty…love love love this! thank u for writing it!
Thank you.
-> it’s an addiction, very hard to quit (I’m sick of non-smokers that seem to have this high-and-mighty attitude that it’s so easy.. well, smoke for a while, quit and see how you do. They really need to back off, they aren’t helping any)
->also, it’s actually *cheaper* to smoke cigarettes than use the patches/gum, and medication (prescriptions that used to help quit smoking are a whole new problem entirely… By the way, smokers are repeatedly told by doctors, etc ‘you can’t quit by yourself, you need this product’, or whatever prescription they’re trying to push. Squishes a person’s willpower before they even start the quitting process, with that little negative voice in the back of their mind)
->some people that smoke are inconsiderate around others (butts on the streets, blowing smoke in your face, smoking in spots where you shouldn’t, like bus shelters, etc. I was a smoker, and I HATED it when people did those things, still hate it of course. If there was no ashtray to put my smoke butt, i had a little metal container with me to store them in until I could throw them out properly
->crappy food is way cheaper than healthy food and requires very little effort and time to prepare
->most people work a lot and they are tired, so they say they’re tired, and they’re also hungry, so they buy the cheap crappy food that fills them up for the time being, but afterwards makes your stomach hurt, and since there’s no nutritional value in it, you are always *tired* because your body isn’t getting the nutrients it needs.
->local stores cannot compete with the cheapness and one-stop-shopping that is walmart/superstore/all other stores owned by huge-ass corporations who see us as dollar signs and their workers as cheap, very expendable labour. And those workers have to kiss their bosses @ss to keep that job. It disgusts me how employers treat workers nowadays. True, it’s not sweatshop or slave labor, but come on, this is the first world’s version of it.
->children cannot be punished properly anymore. When I was a kid, if I misbehaved, I got the back hand, or a spanking, none of this go-in-the-corner-and count-to-10-crap. You learned quickly and cleaned up your act when you didn’t want another spanking.
->You have made a million good points but I don’t have anything to add about them
So, just to touch on the surface of what needs to get done, FIRST thing is that healthy food needs to be more affordable. Once people have that incentive that it’s actually gonna cost more $ up front for crappy food, they will be inclined to prepare their own healthy food, and this in turn *should* give people the energy they need to function without always being ‘tired.’ After that happens, their minds will uncloud when all the poisons from the garbage food leaves their brains, they’ll come out of that depression or whatever problem they have and be able to think clearly, and be motivated to change their life. All they need is a push in the right direction, and that starts with MAKING GOOD FOOD AFFORDABLE! It should start the chain reaction people need. There’s a lot more to it than that and I’m not very good at getting my point across sometimes, but maybe someone can see it here? There’s a million little steps that I’m leaving out, but I’m hoping you get the idea.