nlj
Well-Known Member
I'm probably about as tall as the average 4th grader though. I had a year 6 class one year and they were nearly all taller than me!
Getting healthy: Ties in with Lil's weight loss thread.
- Thread starter Jabberwockey
- Start date
SuZir
Well-Known Member
When I was 100 pounds I was at the mid school and had to go to school nurse once a month to weight checks for half a year up because they worried I could had been developing eating disorder instead of just not being able to keep up with my eating. They only let me be when it became evident that my weight was catching up my height, though slowly.
While we Europeans certainly do have our weight problems, situation is little better than in USA. And while for example in my country statistically many are overweight (especially men), the obesity rates are much lower than in USA. And because we generally are not petite people, many who fall to 'overweight' category are not that chubby nor in bad shape. For example Joy, my younger son, is statistically overweight. His BMI is bit on the over weight side, his body fat percentage is around 7-9 % depending the time of the season, he is over 6'1 tall and wears size M clothing. Ache is not officially overweight (and his BMI is very average 23), but the more generous description of him is 'lanky' and more likely descriptions are 'build like a baby squirrel in very bad year' or 'clothesline raised upwards' or the most insulting 'looks like a ski jumper.' So many people with BMI on the overweight side are not actually in any danger health wise.
Europe of course is very diverse place culturally and especially when it comes to food. I live on the Northest corner of the place and our diet is (especially traditionally) very different from Mediterranean and so is our culture. The most stables in our diet are bread (basically always whole grain, some wheat but for the big part other grains, especially rye and all kinds of mixed grain breads), potato and other root vegetables (beets, rutabagas, carrots etc.), wild berries, pork (and nowadays chicken) instead of beef mostly, fish and game. (And yes, we eat 'Rudolphs', which especially people in UK tend to find awful
) We have lots of room and few people and personal relation to nature is still important to many. Hunting is one of the most popular hobbies and we have very vast rights to roam also in privately owned forests and for example pick wild berries from other people's land. And many do.Our government also uses taxation to strongly herd us to the directions they want to. Partly for environmental reasons, partly for infrastructural reasons private motoring is discourages, both car and gas taxes are very high and public transportation is subsidised and infrastructure is build to favour walking and cycling. Also food taxes are used to change our choices. Sugary products such as sodas are more highly taxed (and so more expensive) than more healthy options. We have also been lucky to escape some of the more unhealthy ways to prepare food. Traditionally oven and boiling have been ways to go and I have for example never seen a deep fryer in private residence in this country nor do I know anyone who would have such a thing. Only thing we fry in our home kitchens are Berliners and those we usually only make once a year for Walpurgis. Eating out tends to be expensive (and we have way less fast food options and for example McDonald's have never really made decent profit during the decades they have been in our market) so we mostly cook at home and also teach our kids to cook from early age.
And because we have public health care and so municipalities and state end up footing our health bills, they do have vested interest to keep us healthy. Not on taxing things that are bad for us highly (not only sugar but more so tobacco and alcohol) but we are offered lots of free or subsided exercise options. Not only bike ways and side walks everywhere, but cheap swimming halls, free outdoor ices in winter and tennis and basketball courts in summer, free cross country skiing routes with lights at winter and running routes at summer and so on. School lunches are also free for all and for example I never ate even one french fry or pizza slice at school nor does university cafeterias offer those kinds of options. My kids had pizza once a year when during the last month of school they got to vote the school lunch for Wednesdays and pizza often made it to top 4. Typical school lunch, or what they had in Joy's school today, is for example roasted herrings, mashed potato, salad (was grated carrot, cole and orange slices today according to Joy). Tomorrow they will have chicken-vegetable risotto.
We also take a different stand to everyday activity than what I think is typical in USA. For example when my kids were young and I was at home with them and Ache had started school and was still too young to walk alone (and around here we do consider our kids to be old enough to walk or ride their bikes to school alone when they are 7 or 8 but Ache was immature for his age), I everyday, rain or shine, 80 F or -20 F dressed both boys every morning to suitable outwear for the weather and walked with them to school (about 1 mile from our house), walked back home with Joy and then, few hours later walked the same trip again with them. If for whatever reason I drove Ache to school (yes, I did have my own car and money for gas), I felt compelled to explain everyone I met and who saw I was with the car, why it was absolutely necessary to take a car that day. I assume that in US it would be considered just efficient to take a car and make that five minute drive instead of having a almost half an hour walk in one direction with the kids who want to stop and play or explore every 100 yards. Around here taking the car would be considered laziness.
We may not hit the gym more frequently than you, but we are expected to do much more daily chores on our selves. For example it would raise eyebrows if able-bodied people hire someone to clean at their house, do their yard work for them (your own children living at home are the exception) or anything like that. If you are able, you are expected to do your own manual labour and that means quite a lot everyday activity. For example just shovelling snow tends to give you at least few 'gym hours' a week through winter. Then comes raking your lawn, turning flower and veggie beds, weeding, mowing your lawn (and you have to have a real big lawn or have a disability to justice the ride-on mower and not be considered lazy) and so on. And then there are dogs. Due to weather we basically can only keep indoor dogs, and also the outdoor dogs are expected to be taken to walks daily, and animal welfare act states dogs should be walked daily and given suitable exercise. So again, rain or shine, cold or hot, everyone is out walking with their dogs three times a day, all-together an hour at least, most often more. That kind of daily activity does a big difference especially for those people who do not consider themselves sporty.
But also when it comes to sports, there is a difference. I think the best way to explain it, is one conversation me and my husband had in the event with the US couple we had just met. We started small talk about weather and after that was exhausted, we moved to next safe topic; sports. We talked about our favourite sports and I talked about handball and skiing, husband about golf and tennis and they talked about (American) football. I innocently asked if they have lots of recreational football leagues also for ladies when the lady told she too was big on football. Turned out neither of them had ever played. They were talking about the sports they enjoyed watching, we were talking about sports we enjoy playing. Innocent communication mishap, but also very telling about the culture.
nlj
Well-Known Member
Where are you Suzir? We're going to Norway at Easter. Looking forward to it! We eat venison, so will give reindeer a try, must be similar.
Lil
Well-Known Member
Thank you so much for this post. I absolutely love hearing about other countries and how life is lived there. I think I'd love your country.
BusynMember
Well-Known Member
Suzir, thank you VERY much for explaining. I think your people in the country you reside in have a very good attitude about health. I admit I don't play sports, but it's not because I'd rather sit on a couch and watch them. It's because I have no aptitude even for tennis. So I run. And I bike ride. And I use workout machines.
I think your have a much healthier attitude toward physical health than we do. I do have one interesting question, perhaps not surprising since I have made my position known. And this is something that would not make one overweight, but would impact health. Do the folks in your country smoke cigarettes as much as we do? I actually think it's getting much better in the U.S.
I kind of feel like it's worthless to be active and eat healthy if you're going to smoke, but I'm fanatical about smoking. I can't think of anything I feel is more perilous to your health, except being overweight AND smoking. Although I am NOT a medical professional, I have worked at four hospitals in Admitting and the early and younger heart attacks were almost always the same profile: overweight, definitely smokers, and the youngest of all tended to be interestingly men. I also notice a huge difference between people my age (early 60s) who can do things...the thinner, non-smokers tend to do quite well whereas those who are smokers and/or obese seem to have trouble sometimes just walking and definitely doing the stairs. This, of course, does NOT include everybody.
Thanks again, Suzir. And to my other board friends, Suz has reasons why she doesn't want us to know exactly what country she lives in. It bothered me once (and we even got into it because of it...stupid of me...myself being stupid again!), but I respect that in her. Let's just say she lives across the pond from the US and Canada She will tell us if she wants us to know.
I think your have a much healthier attitude toward physical health than we do. I do have one interesting question, perhaps not surprising since I have made my position known. And this is something that would not make one overweight, but would impact health. Do the folks in your country smoke cigarettes as much as we do? I actually think it's getting much better in the U.S.
I kind of feel like it's worthless to be active and eat healthy if you're going to smoke, but I'm fanatical about smoking. I can't think of anything I feel is more perilous to your health, except being overweight AND smoking. Although I am NOT a medical professional, I have worked at four hospitals in Admitting and the early and younger heart attacks were almost always the same profile: overweight, definitely smokers, and the youngest of all tended to be interestingly men. I also notice a huge difference between people my age (early 60s) who can do things...the thinner, non-smokers tend to do quite well whereas those who are smokers and/or obese seem to have trouble sometimes just walking and definitely doing the stairs. This, of course, does NOT include everybody.
Thanks again, Suzir. And to my other board friends, Suz has reasons why she doesn't want us to know exactly what country she lives in. It bothered me once (and we even got into it because of it...stupid of me...myself being stupid again!), but I respect that in her. Let's just say she lives across the pond from the US and Canada
She will tell us if she wants us to know.
Lil
Well-Known Member
You know there is a reason for us to use our cars so much more though...I think some people in Europe just don't get how BIG the US is. Even in our smallish town of less than 45,000 people, it takes 15 minutes by car to get from end to end by car and public transportation sucks. When we were planning our trip in 2010, I spent a lot of time on Trip Advisor forums and I mentioned on the Belgium forum that my husband's uncle was picking us up at the airport, an hour and a half from his house. Some people were horrified that I would impose on him, making him come all that way. To us, that's just not a big deal. I've driven an hour and a half just to go shopping! Seriously, my girlfriend and I used to just hop in a car and drive that far because we had the urge to go to a certain mall. And that's about what we'd normally drive to pick up someone from an airport.
Not that we're not lazy...but our cars are just so much a part of our lives because we have to drive so much. In places like New York City, I suspect people are generally slimmer because they do walk so much.
SuZir
Well-Known Member
Lil: That also depends where you are in Europe. Many parts are tight and things are close, some not so much. I live in the part where things are not so far generally (though we ourselves happen to live near most of the things we need.) But in more secluded areas it is common that nearest hospital is few hours away and if you need a police the nearest patrol may be 200 miles from you. Of course not so many people live on those areas, but they are populated. And of course, when distances start to get bigger, people use cars. However the big difference is, that our cities are built pedestrians in mind, yours are built for cars. Part of that of course is, that most of our cities were already quite laid out before cars were invented and many of your cities have gotten from somewhat small to huge after it. Our tight cities can simply not function, if everyone would drive a car to work or shopping and because of that lots of choices are made, that favour other option.
I live in area, that used to be rural and is now quickly going suburban with pockets of rural (our own 'rural pocket' is getting very small, when I look around in my garden, I see rural landscape, but less than half mile from us to any direction is tight upper middle class suburb and new houses being built all the time.) If I want to go shopping on the down town of nearby big city (over million habitants, metropolitan area (in which we are included) bigger), while distance to the most central point of it is only 20 miles from my house, it would easily take an hour to drive and parking would be close to 10 bucks an hour. Or I could walk half an mile to the nearest bus stop, take a bus (about 20 minutes) to nearest subway station and subway to downtown (10 minutes) (cost would be about 7 bucks) or I could drive to nearest train station (about 10 minutes), have free parking and take a local train (10 minutes, 3 bucks) to downtown. You see how easy it is to impact people's choices by subsiding and favouring some transport methods over others?
In smaller cities driving is of course quicker and cheaper, but even in small cities taking a bike is often quicker in less than 3 mile distances. And even in small towns parking usually costs quite a lot in downtown area. It is usually the biggest aim of city councils to keep their downtowns lively, keep people walking around and visiting all the small businesses and shopping centres. Bigger international chains are not always too happy with city planning, because they would often want to build big stores outside of the cities (usually next to high ways) and city councils tend to make that difficult (either demanding them to stay in down towns or at least lotting all the big chains to same area outside the downtown so that people can walk from store to store and public transport to that area can be arranged. But because the small businesses in the downtown tend to be big employers and actually pay their taxes to that area, keeping market favourable to those tends to be priority to city councils.
Favouring pedestrians/cars in city planning is the constant debating topic in city politics, but in our bigger cities it is usually so that there is no other choice than to favour public transition and pedestrians. Simply not enough room to make roads wider nor room for parking and also environmental and air quality concerns play a part.
And MWM is right, I'm not comfortable right down naming the country I live in. While some have guessed and for some I have mentioned it in private conversations, and it is not a big secret per se, these are very popular forums and spelling it right here in the open would make my son rather easily identifiable for someone from my country and having some information of our sport scene. And some of the things I have written are very private to him. And maybe even worse, someone could make a wrong guess and identify someone not my son to be the person I have written here (it happened that some time ago an athlete came out with somewhat similar issues than my son has in the press, age is also about right etc. so someone could easily assume, that that guy is my son and assume that issues I talk here are his, which would of course harm that guy's reputation.) Let's just say that general vicinity of Scandinavia is about right and let that be it.
And the topic of smoking: I had to do some googling on that, but seems like we smoke about as much than people in USA. Figures are getting lower, especially among the young, but still about every sixth person is a smoker. If there is any difference to the USA, I would guess that passive smoking is less common here. I have noticed that some of you have house rules about not smoking in the house and so on, and that feels rather old fashioned to me. Somke thirty years ago it could had been something worth mentioning that you are not allowing smoking in your house also around here, but nowadays no one assumes it would be okay to smoke in someone's home or car. People who do smoke do not smoke on their houses or cars either. Basically the stereotype is that only old drunks or druggies etc. smoke inside, not your average working, tax paying citizens. I again have to say I don't know anyone who would smoke in their house or car and I know many smokers. Even my husband is unfortunately picked the habit again due the stress Ache's crash and staying at home last fall caused. He tried to quit again in January but made it only three days, but he is scheduling an appointment with his doctor now to ask the rx for Chantix. For him the issue is not so much the physical withdrawal symptoms but the mental relief/calming down effect he is used to receive from smoking.
I absolutely hate to say that, but Ache is the biggest reason husband didn't kick the smoking habit long time ago already. He taught himself to go out and have a cig, when Ache was too much for him. When he got too angry or too frustrated to be constructive with him or when Ache was other ways stressing him out too much. He quit after Ache moved out and it was in fact quite easy for him at the time. He picked up smoking again after Ache's crash this fall to deal with stress and frustration it caused to us. But whole he is out of the house again, it is not easy for husband to quit this time. He has taught himself to calm down and cut the worrying with cigs and gas difficult time dealing with that without. And because it is not Ache's daily drama, about which we are mostly blissfully unaware anyway, that is eating us alive but the end game, detaching, 'not my monkey, not my circus'-type of thinking is not helping. Just last night I woked up around 3 a.m. to husband sneaking out from the bed to balcony to have a cig and followed him to ask what is wrong and we had one of the more frank discussions about the situation. We can try to calm ourselves up with mental tricks all we want, but the end game is clear. If Ache will kill himself, it is the end of our world as we know it and there is no going around that. We can't prevent it, our ability to help him is limited, but not being in control of any of it doesn't cut down the devastation of that possibility a bit. Of course husband ruining his health by smoking doesn't make the situation any better so we decided he should try the medications that can cut the mental relief he gets from cigs down so he is forced to find some other way to deal with the stress that is not going to go away any time soon. (While Ache seems to be doing relatively fine just now, we will never again rely on that, it would feel foolish to even hope, that where wouldn't be that next call from someone starting with 'Sorry to tell you, but we have some bad news...')
I live in area, that used to be rural and is now quickly going suburban with pockets of rural (our own 'rural pocket' is getting very small, when I look around in my garden, I see rural landscape, but less than half mile from us to any direction is tight upper middle class suburb and new houses being built all the time.) If I want to go shopping on the down town of nearby big city (over million habitants, metropolitan area (in which we are included) bigger), while distance to the most central point of it is only 20 miles from my house, it would easily take an hour to drive and parking would be close to 10 bucks an hour. Or I could walk half an mile to the nearest bus stop, take a bus (about 20 minutes) to nearest subway station and subway to downtown (10 minutes) (cost would be about 7 bucks) or I could drive to nearest train station (about 10 minutes), have free parking and take a local train (10 minutes, 3 bucks) to downtown. You see how easy it is to impact people's choices by subsiding and favouring some transport methods over others?
In smaller cities driving is of course quicker and cheaper, but even in small cities taking a bike is often quicker in less than 3 mile distances. And even in small towns parking usually costs quite a lot in downtown area. It is usually the biggest aim of city councils to keep their downtowns lively, keep people walking around and visiting all the small businesses and shopping centres. Bigger international chains are not always too happy with city planning, because they would often want to build big stores outside of the cities (usually next to high ways) and city councils tend to make that difficult (either demanding them to stay in down towns or at least lotting all the big chains to same area outside the downtown so that people can walk from store to store and public transport to that area can be arranged. But because the small businesses in the downtown tend to be big employers and actually pay their taxes to that area, keeping market favourable to those tends to be priority to city councils.
Favouring pedestrians/cars in city planning is the constant debating topic in city politics, but in our bigger cities it is usually so that there is no other choice than to favour public transition and pedestrians. Simply not enough room to make roads wider nor room for parking and also environmental and air quality concerns play a part.
And MWM is right, I'm not comfortable right down naming the country I live in. While some have guessed and for some I have mentioned it in private conversations, and it is not a big secret per se, these are very popular forums and spelling it right here in the open would make my son rather easily identifiable for someone from my country and having some information of our sport scene. And some of the things I have written are very private to him. And maybe even worse, someone could make a wrong guess and identify someone not my son to be the person I have written here (it happened that some time ago an athlete came out with somewhat similar issues than my son has in the press, age is also about right etc. so someone could easily assume, that that guy is my son and assume that issues I talk here are his, which would of course harm that guy's reputation.) Let's just say that general vicinity of Scandinavia is about right and let that be it.
And the topic of smoking: I had to do some googling on that, but seems like we smoke about as much than people in USA. Figures are getting lower, especially among the young, but still about every sixth person is a smoker. If there is any difference to the USA, I would guess that passive smoking is less common here. I have noticed that some of you have house rules about not smoking in the house and so on, and that feels rather old fashioned to me. Somke thirty years ago it could had been something worth mentioning that you are not allowing smoking in your house also around here, but nowadays no one assumes it would be okay to smoke in someone's home or car. People who do smoke do not smoke on their houses or cars either. Basically the stereotype is that only old drunks or druggies etc. smoke inside, not your average working, tax paying citizens. I again have to say I don't know anyone who would smoke in their house or car and I know many smokers. Even my husband is unfortunately picked the habit again due the stress Ache's crash and staying at home last fall caused. He tried to quit again in January but made it only three days, but he is scheduling an appointment with his doctor now to ask the rx for Chantix. For him the issue is not so much the physical withdrawal symptoms but the mental relief/calming down effect he is used to receive from smoking.
I absolutely hate to say that, but Ache is the biggest reason husband didn't kick the smoking habit long time ago already. He taught himself to go out and have a cig, when Ache was too much for him. When he got too angry or too frustrated to be constructive with him or when Ache was other ways stressing him out too much. He quit after Ache moved out and it was in fact quite easy for him at the time. He picked up smoking again after Ache's crash this fall to deal with stress and frustration it caused to us. But whole he is out of the house again, it is not easy for husband to quit this time. He has taught himself to calm down and cut the worrying with cigs and gas difficult time dealing with that without. And because it is not Ache's daily drama, about which we are mostly blissfully unaware anyway, that is eating us alive but the end game, detaching, 'not my monkey, not my circus'-type of thinking is not helping. Just last night I woked up around 3 a.m. to husband sneaking out from the bed to balcony to have a cig and followed him to ask what is wrong and we had one of the more frank discussions about the situation. We can try to calm ourselves up with mental tricks all we want, but the end game is clear. If Ache will kill himself, it is the end of our world as we know it and there is no going around that. We can't prevent it, our ability to help him is limited, but not being in control of any of it doesn't cut down the devastation of that possibility a bit. Of course husband ruining his health by smoking doesn't make the situation any better so we decided he should try the medications that can cut the mental relief he gets from cigs down so he is forced to find some other way to deal with the stress that is not going to go away any time soon. (While Ache seems to be doing relatively fine just now, we will never again rely on that, it would feel foolish to even hope, that where wouldn't be that next call from someone starting with 'Sorry to tell you, but we have some bad news...')
BusynMember
Well-Known Member
Suzir, thank you. Very interesting that it is just understood that one does not smoke inside in your country. While most people here would ask if it's ok, they do smoke inside. We live in a non-smoking apartment, but some still breach that and we can smell it a little sometimes when we are in the hallway. As for smoking in a car, that's like (to me) REALLY instant cancer, emphysema, etc. Even with the window open, it comes in because I've driven with smokers before smokers became more respectful in the U.S. The smoke just blows right back in at the passenger in the car.
I have always said I was born in the wrong country. I am. I am not completely European in my thinking, of course, but I do feel the U.S. is way behind the rest of the developed world in health, healthcare, politics, ideas, almost everything. For living in the U.S., I am a social and fiscal liberal, which any Americans would actually call being a Communist (which is ridiculous.). Heck, many think Medicare is socialistic. And what's so bad about socialism anyway...lol.
Anyway, I have always told my hubby if I had known which way our country would have turned, with people who want to make a fetus have the rights of a person and the like, I'd have picked up my young family and moved to Canada. I'm very out of sync with my own country. For one thing, I hate guns and that alone makes me odd.
Anyhow, my family is here so we are here for the duration, but I have stopped watching the news as I just can't listen to what is happening here anymore. In no way am I saying MY views are right. There is no right or wrong when it comes to opinion (don't want to offend anyone here).
I have always said I was born in the wrong country. I am. I am not completely European in my thinking, of course, but I do feel the U.S. is way behind the rest of the developed world in health, healthcare, politics, ideas, almost everything. For living in the U.S., I am a social and fiscal liberal, which any Americans would actually call being a Communist (which is ridiculous.). Heck, many think Medicare is socialistic. And what's so bad about socialism anyway...lol.
Anyway, I have always told my hubby if I had known which way our country would have turned, with people who want to make a fetus have the rights of a person and the like, I'd have picked up my young family and moved to Canada. I'm very out of sync with my own country. For one thing, I hate guns and that alone makes me odd.
Anyhow, my family is here so we are here for the duration, but I have stopped watching the news as I just can't listen to what is happening here anymore. In no way am I saying MY views are right. There is no right or wrong when it comes to opinion (don't want to offend anyone here).
Lil
Well-Known Member
If I want to go to a city of a million inhabitants, it's over an hour and a half by car. Even if it were cost effective to take public transportation, I'd have to go to the train station (which we are actually lucky enough to have here they are pretty sparse) it takes about twice as long because of all the stops along the way. Then, of course, you have to get on the city buses to go anywhere else or take taxis. There are no local trains, no subways. AND the train only runs once a day in each direction, so you have to travel on their schedule. It's not like there is only every 20 minutes. I know in our town the buses stop running at 5:30...I don't know about city buses. Now, in some big cities (New York, Chicago) it's more like what you describe. In those cases it makes sense and I think people probably do use public transportation quite a lot. I certainly would if it were more reliable and cost effective.
When we were in Rome for two weeks we took public transportation every day or walked or both. It was very convenient and awesome to just wait 10 or 20 minutes and there's another train or bus if you miss the first one.
Oh I think most smokers would never consider smoking in the home of a non-smoker...even with permission, but many smokers do smoke in their own homes. We stopped years ago because I hate the left-over smell. I did smoke in my car, but never if I had passengers and ALWAYS with the window down. Jabber and I saw a person smoking the other day with the window up and were commenting on that...how we could never have been able to do that. If the weather was too bad to put the window down...we didn't smoke.
I suspect the "rules" against it are for the benefit of our difficult kids.
Oh...
The worry and fear never really goes away, even when things are good.
I don't know who made the comment, but at one point, someone said that history in North America is like distance in Europe. Here... something 100 years old is a major deal... not so much in Europe. But we don't blink at 100 kms - or even 100 miles. People choose to commute 100 kms to their jobs. You don't do that with public transit, and you couldn't bike it and have time left for work.
We think different. Our history is different. And yes, our cities were never designed for people-powered transportation.
We think different. Our history is different. And yes, our cities were never designed for people-powered transportation.
BusynMember
Well-Known Member
Lil, I found many smokers more oblivious to how much smoke affects non-smokers than rude, but, in the end, it is the same. If I'm driving with a smoker, even with the window open, I taste the smoke and try not to gag. Of course, I am long past driving with anyone who smokes because if it is their car, they can do what they like. In my car...not happening.
And I used to have horrible experiences with smokers before smoking fell out of favor. Yes, I'm that old...lol. I was in a restaurant with my friend and young child (Bart) and there were no smoking sections. You could just smoke anywhere. A man was smoking right next to us and I asked him if he would please try to blow the smoke in the other direction because of my young child. I was uber-polite. As a response he turned to us and blew smoke right in our faces and kept doing it until we finally left early. This was not an isolated experience. Smokers tend to think if they smoke outdoors, others can't get the affects or taste or smell it, but they can. But because they don't know that, many just blow smoke at passbys, not to be rude but because they assume the outdoors neutralize the smoke, which it does a little bit.
I think without the new strict rules, smokers would still be jersks. Not ALL smokers, of course, but enough of them who think smoking is their right and it's tough if others don't like it. Now I agree smoking is a right. However, when your right crosses over and includes me, then it is no longer your right. I have tried hard all my life to keep my lungs and body healthy and second hand smoke is not cool. There is a big difference in my age bracket (60s) with non-smokers who work out and smokers, as far as health problems, being able to run or climb stairs or keep up with the grands. It isn't right in my opinion to ever blow smoke at anyone, even if one is outside.
I don't believe you can really be healthy, except for those with exceptional genes, and smoke. So to me the first step to getting healthy is to quit smoking, get over the withdrawals and urges, then start exercising and eating sensibly. I have done these things. At one time, after starting Paroxatene, I was five feet one inch tall (short...lol) and got as high as 180. That was not acceptable to me nor was no longer taking my so-helpful-miracle antidepressant so I worked uber-hard to get my weight to normal and I did work out and even now I eat a lot of small meals with health food. Greek Yogurt, fat free, is my favorite snack!!! YUM!!!! And your stomach DOES not need as much food once you get used to not eating when you aren't really hungry.
I tried very hard to discourage my kids from smoking and none of them smoking...not even the difficult children. Of course, Bart always has some exception. Idiiotically he tried dipping while on an outing with his co-workers. Idiotically, he got addicted to dip. I have read it is even more hazardous than smoking and I find it gross. However...at least it's just his body he is harming. He isn't harming anyone else. Chew!!!! UGH!
My other kids hate smoking as much as I do. Jumper calls them cancer sticks. Princess is into organics and she also has a smoke free house. Even GoneBoy is ademant against smoking. Sonic cringes every time he thinks he smells smoke in the hallway of his apartment.
To a non-smoker, unless you grew up around smokers, it is not a pleasant sensation.
I hope you can bite the bullet and quit!!!!! Sending healing vibes
And I used to have horrible experiences with smokers before smoking fell out of favor. Yes, I'm that old...lol. I was in a restaurant with my friend and young child (Bart) and there were no smoking sections. You could just smoke anywhere. A man was smoking right next to us and I asked him if he would please try to blow the smoke in the other direction because of my young child. I was uber-polite. As a response he turned to us and blew smoke right in our faces and kept doing it until we finally left early. This was not an isolated experience. Smokers tend to think if they smoke outdoors, others can't get the affects or taste or smell it, but they can. But because they don't know that, many just blow smoke at passbys, not to be rude but because they assume the outdoors neutralize the smoke, which it does a little bit.
I think without the new strict rules, smokers would still be jersks. Not ALL smokers, of course, but enough of them who think smoking is their right and it's tough if others don't like it. Now I agree smoking is a right. However, when your right crosses over and includes me, then it is no longer your right. I have tried hard all my life to keep my lungs and body healthy and second hand smoke is not cool. There is a big difference in my age bracket (60s) with non-smokers who work out and smokers, as far as health problems, being able to run or climb stairs or keep up with the grands. It isn't right in my opinion to ever blow smoke at anyone, even if one is outside.
I don't believe you can really be healthy, except for those with exceptional genes, and smoke. So to me the first step to getting healthy is to quit smoking, get over the withdrawals and urges, then start exercising and eating sensibly. I have done these things. At one time, after starting Paroxatene, I was five feet one inch tall (short...lol) and got as high as 180. That was not acceptable to me nor was no longer taking my so-helpful-miracle antidepressant so I worked uber-hard to get my weight to normal and I did work out and even now I eat a lot of small meals with health food. Greek Yogurt, fat free, is my favorite snack!!! YUM!!!! And your stomach DOES not need as much food once you get used to not eating when you aren't really hungry.
I tried very hard to discourage my kids from smoking and none of them smoking...not even the difficult children. Of course, Bart always has some exception. Idiiotically he tried dipping while on an outing with his co-workers. Idiotically, he got addicted to dip. I have read it is even more hazardous than smoking and I find it gross. However...at least it's just his body he is harming. He isn't harming anyone else. Chew!!!! UGH!
My other kids hate smoking as much as I do. Jumper calls them cancer sticks. Princess is into organics and she also has a smoke free house. Even GoneBoy is ademant against smoking. Sonic cringes every time he thinks he smells smoke in the hallway of his apartment.
To a non-smoker, unless you grew up around smokers, it is not a pleasant sensation.
I hope you can bite the bullet and quit!!!!! Sending healing vibes
Jabberwockey
Well-Known Member
MWM, we are doing pretty good on the no smoking. We both had one Sunday after our son called us at church but that still puts us at less than a half a pack each total since mid-November. As far as people blowing smoke at people as they walk by, jerks are jerks whether they are smokers or not. When I went to the smoking area at work and someone else was there I went out of my way not to blow smoke towards them, smokers or not.
Oh, and I tried to chew when I was in the military. It lasted less than a week and yes, VERY high risk for cancer of the mouth.
Oh, and I tried to chew when I was in the military. It lasted less than a week and yes, VERY high risk for cancer of the mouth.
Lil
Well-Known Member
I hope you can bite the bullet and quit!!!!! Sending healing vibes
I really don't get why you keep going on about smoking, when we've clearly said we're quitting.
I'm not saying I'll never do what I did Sunday and bum one in cases of extreme upset (if you recall your list of addictive substances, nicotine is right up there with heroin)...but I don't intend to ever purchase cigarettes and be a smoker again.And Jabber's right. Jerks are jerks. If they didn't smoke they'd be jerks about something else. I didn't say I smoked in the car with the window down with other people in the car. I said I smoked in the car alone, and didn't smoke in the car if I had non-smoker's riding with me...even if they said I could. I would ask people near me in smoky bars if they minded if I lit up if they were not also smoking...and I sat in the non-smoking sections of restaurants myself...I never liked to smoke while having a meal.
I'd hoped seeing us try and fail and try again to quit would discourage our son from smoking. Not so lucky. He smokes more than either one of us. Seems like an idiotic way to spend your money when you have so little.
BusynMember
Well-Known Member
I think the only way to quit is to quit. It took my husband five tries But, really, ya gotta quit all the way.
I know jerks are jerks.
I know my son's risk to his entire body because of the chew stuff is incredibly high, yet he is a hypochondriac. Jabber, he got addicted the first time he tried it. He hates doing it, but he can't help it and let's just say he doesn't have a strong will to do what he needs to do in any portion of his life. He is also overweight. He was once very good looking. Now...well, he looks like he has a beer gut although he doesn't drink beer much anymore. It's a hangover (pun intended) from his beer days. He will probably never decide to get healthy because he will say, "I know girls like you more if you're fit, but I'm too tired after work to work out and I don't have the willpower to eat healthy and I'd love to stop the chewing, but I'm under too much stress."
But, really, ya gotta quit all the way. I know jerks are jerks.
I know my son's risk to his entire body because of the chew stuff is incredibly high, yet he is a hypochondriac. Jabber, he got addicted the first time he tried it. He hates doing it, but he can't help it and let's just say he doesn't have a strong will to do what he needs to do in any portion of his life. He is also overweight. He was once very good looking. Now...well, he looks like he has a beer gut although he doesn't drink beer much anymore. It's a hangover (pun intended) from his beer days. He will probably never decide to get healthy because he will say, "I know girls like you more if you're fit, but I'm too tired after work to work out and I don't have the willpower to eat healthy and I'd love to stop the chewing, but I'm under too much stress."
SuZir
Well-Known Member
I have yet to meet a smoker who likes how rooms, cars, clothes etc. that have been smoked in, smell. And I guess that, and information how bad thing passive smoking is, is the biggest reason why smoking inside has went so out of fashion around here. First people stopped smoking in their homes and many public buildings started to have smoking rooms and other rooms were smoking free, then they stopped smoking in their cars, and in some point 'smoking rooms' in public buildings needed to be so well isolated that most places got rid of them and went totally smoke free. Restaurants and bars are not allowed to let people drink or eat in their smoking 'boxes' (and those they actually are, they look like aquaria with no chairs etc. just glass walls and room for few people to stand and smoke in them) and basically all restaurants have simply gone smoke free and have a smoking place outside, bars still have those smoking boxes, but they are not places where people would like to hang out any more. Very different from old times, when smoking places used to be social hot spots with all the cool people there (I have never smoked but I used to hang out in smoking places when young, because of the company.)
Lil
Well-Known Member
Okay...total digression from the topic of getting fit:
Here laws against smoking in public buildings are by city ordinance. I both agree...and disagree. I personally prefer - and always have preferred - eating in a restaurant with no smoking. I admit, I'll probably miss cigarettes when I gamble...the closest casino allows smoking and there's something about sitting at the blackjack table with a drink and a cigarette...three vices at one!
I didn't particularly care one way or another about smoking in a bar. But, since our favorite bar also has amazing food, I like it better with no smoking. But the thing is, that bar (the Irish pub we sometimes talk about) went non-smoking a year or two before the city ordinance. The owner built a nice deck, covered it, installed outdoor heaters and made his bar non-smoking. You can smoke on the deck, drink there, eat there if you choose, year-round. After years of owning a bar, he felt he was having health issues, though he didn't smoke, from the constant exposure. But that bar owner was the biggest opponent to the law there was when it came out. You see, he knew that his business might take a hit from smokers who didn't like it...and he was in a financial position to take the risk. But he felt, as I feel, that it should be the business owners' choice on what (perfectly legal) activities they choose to allow in their businesses.
Since I'm now a quitter...that's the last I'll comment on it.
Here laws against smoking in public buildings are by city ordinance. I both agree...and disagree. I personally prefer - and always have preferred - eating in a restaurant with no smoking. I admit, I'll probably miss cigarettes when I gamble...the closest casino allows smoking and there's something about sitting at the blackjack table with a drink and a cigarette...three vices at one!
I didn't particularly care one way or another about smoking in a bar. But, since our favorite bar also has amazing food, I like it better with no smoking. But the thing is, that bar (the Irish pub we sometimes talk about) went non-smoking a year or two before the city ordinance. The owner built a nice deck, covered it, installed outdoor heaters and made his bar non-smoking. You can smoke on the deck, drink there, eat there if you choose, year-round. After years of owning a bar, he felt he was having health issues, though he didn't smoke, from the constant exposure. But that bar owner was the biggest opponent to the law there was when it came out. You see, he knew that his business might take a hit from smokers who didn't like it...and he was in a financial position to take the risk. But he felt, as I feel, that it should be the business owners' choice on what (perfectly legal) activities they choose to allow in their businesses.
Since I'm now a quitter...that's the last I'll comment on it.
