3 Barriers to Good Health in Modern Society

I believe the pursuit of physical fitness is a critical component to one’s personal growth.  A large part of that belief stems from the fact that we are such a scientifically and technologically advanced society, yet, we are incredibly unhealthy as a whole.  The incidence of obesity continues to rise and ,in my lifetime, people have become increasingly mentally unstable.  We’re becoming more frail and it doesn’t make sense given the access to knowledge that we have on how to make ourselves less frail and more resilient.  

Recently, a friend of mine asked me why I thought we struggled so much as a society to be healthy.  I gave three reasons that I’ll share here today.  These factors explain why I’m such an advocate for physical fitness:

1. Exercise is still a new idea –  In my experience, our physical pursuits as modern humans are usually in response to a need of some sort.  When we were still hunter gatherers you had to cultivate endurance and strength to be able to gain access to food.  When we were farmers we would have had to adapt to the physical needs of farm life.  Again, endurance and strength.  Even as we industrialized, there were (and still are) jobs that were very physical in nature like factory work and construction.  But at that point, being physical started to be separate from the home or personal life.  Instead of having a physical life, people were beginning to have a physical job.  This means that some people didn’t have a physical job and maybe didn’t have a physical life, because the environment no longer required it.  Therefore, to cultivate physical ability we have to choose being physical with our leisure time… also known as, exercise. 
   
   It’s my belief that in the human psyche this is still a relatively new concept.  Exercise is something we must create a culture around just like personal hygiene practices.  It’s assumed that we brush our teeth daily.  It’s assumed that we shower daily.  Also, it’s assumed that we fall apart physically as we get older.  That’s often the pattern we see, therefore, many people assume it’s inevitable.  Changing this reality revolves around developing a cultural narrative around what proper exercise is and how to cultivate it.  We all know that athleticism, strength, and endurance are desirable traits but there are a multitude of ways to develop them.  Many people get lost in the options.  My belief is that we have to encourage one another in our own personal journey with fitness.  No surprise here… I think the answer is learning to take ownership of our own health and fitness journey.
       
2. The Food Environment – There are calorie rich, nutrient poor food options everywhere.  From my observation, a healthy diet seems to be about pursuing minimally processed food and neither consuming too much or too little.  Too many calories or too few calories, both lead to dysfunction and disease.  Again, our problem today is that we have easy access to calorie rich, nutrient poor food.  Healthy food in some cases being financially out of range for some.  Also, I’m realizing more everyday that for many of us, processed food has become utterly normal.  Many of us don’t look at ingredient lists or question the fact that everything we eat comes out of a package.  For me, when I eat something that’s packaged, I know I’m eating something that probably has a bunch of junk in it.  It’s not the best choice but it’s an informed choice.  The more I talk to people about nutrition, the more I realize that many people don’t care to know.  Ignorance is bliss. 
   
   Again, no surprise, in my opinion the answer is taking ownership of the process.  For many people, that’s educating yourself on what’s in the food you eat.    
    
3. Our culture Prioritizes other things – The implicit definition of success in American Culture is having lots of money.  We all know it and we all feel it.  The ‘American Dream’ is lots of money and the ability to buy lots of stuff.  If we aren’t careful it is very easy to believe that we have somehow failed if we don’t live up to that model.  However, as I’ve written about and will continue to write about, most of the amenities in a modern society are built on simple jobs that pay a modest wage at best.  Essentially, for some of us to live the ‘American Dream’ there have to be people who are willing to take jobs that don’t facilitate the same dream.
   
   Of course, I’ve been doing a lot of work over the last 15 years or so to alter my view of what success is for me.  To me it’s very simple:  If I am not cultivating health then I am severely limiting my ability to enjoy anything in life.  To go further, I’ve seen so many cases in my family where people have destroyed their bodies with poor lifestyle choices.  In these situations, all the money and healthcare benefits in the world can’t save people from their own habits.  People thought the doctor would save them, social security would save them, their money would save them… All along they could have saved themselves by making regular movement and a healthy diet a priority.

If we are going to be our best selves we have to take responsibility for how we handle our bodies.  In our current world and culture, this means we have to take responsibility for educating ourselves and experimenting regularly with what a healthy lifestyle is going to look like for us as individuals.  The information is out there, you have to believe it’s important enough to go get it and act upon it.  

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