Page 9 - How to stay healthy in an unhealthy world

I started to go to the gym to exercise. Doing sit ups, legs raises and all that stuff they teach you. I saw all those “healthy looking” fit specimens and thought . . . if they can do it so can I. The problem with exercise, that I was not that aware off back then was that . . .
#1. It didn’t necessarily make you “healthy” . . . just fitter. And
#2. When you keep eating the same old ‘garbage food’ and lots of it, you will really struggle to keep that weight off even with lots of exercise. And you will also have some of the other lifestyle and diet related diseases, like heart problems, diabetes, asthma and even cancer and, even if you are super “FIT” and have a great looking body by most people standards.
I am sure you may know what I am talking about. I saw a lot of formerly fit sports people, get pretty out of shape (Or suddenly drop dead from a heart attack) as they got older because of their eating habits and as they stopped the exercise at the levels they did when young, their food intake and type stayed the same . . . hence the weight gain and other illnesses, that only a change in ‘lifestyle’ can prevent and allow the body to heal itself.
But until I was 28, even though that’s what I saw around myself, I was still the kind of person that believed that healthy eating vegetarians and other such like people were just these broccoli munching wimpy weirdos.
I was a “REAL man” and I ate whatever was put in front of me. And I LOVED my mum’s European cooking. Roast pork, bread dumplings, pickled cabbage, Goulash . . . and then I also loved the Aussie meat pies, Hamburgers with egg, bacon and double cheese plus those delicious steaks and roasts with those overcooked ‘token’ veggies and mash potatoes or chips they love to serve them up with. I even remember liver and brains of some animals being on the menu at times. YUK. Seriously now it makes me want to vomit just thinking about this.
My parents were great hosts. They had lots of parties, with lashings of food. Salami, roast turkey you name it. No wonder my dad had a double or triple by- pass, pacemaker and was on all types of pills and medical drugs. I remember seeing my parents bedside table drawers were full of all types of medicines and pills. My mom was not far behind him, even if not as bad. The food they ate ultimately killed them.
My parents were amazing hosts . . . unfortunately the food they ate killed them in the end :(
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