Quit carb-counting and move your asses, hippies

There's been a lot of talk lately about carb-counting and all that shit. Recently, someone I know was offered a granola bar, and her first reaction was, "How many calories does it have?" The person offering responded "110." She responded, "Ugh," and declined the granola bar. I have respect for this person, and there's no need to attack her personally, because I don't mind her at all. However, I'm using what transpired as a specific incidence of a broader issue. People avoid exercise like the plague.

People like this for some reason refuse exercise and instead resort to counting calories, carbs, fat, whatever. My question is, why not just take a jog two or three times a week and allow yourself to eat food you actually like, instead of wheat germ and soy crackers? I brought this up today with one of my classmates today.

Intersting story about this girl, first of all. Yesterday, we were talking about pierogies. The word "pierogi" in Russian means pies. I was kind of confused because pierogis to me are Polish pierogis (because half of my family is Polish). So I was asking about this and she yells at me, saying "Oh, that's just the American perspective..." No... my family is fucking Polish, you clod. Quit trying to make yourself look like the authority on international cuisine just because you think I'm a "dumb American," and you think that you somehow know more than I do. Man.

Anyhow, she responded, "Well, some people don't have time to go to the gym." Granted. But you don't need to go to the gym to be fit. TAKE A FRIGGING JOG AROUND YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. Seriously, a half-hour jog every other day or so is intense enough to burn away a decent amount of whatever shit you've put in your body. If you don't have a half-hour of time every day to go out and take a half-hour jog, then you have bigger problems than carb-counting.

All I'm saying is that there are many, many obvious benefits to regular exercise. But people avoid it for some inexplicable reason, and would rather subject themselves to eating things that even my dog would thumb his nose at (if he had thumbs). First of all, if you engage in regular exercise (even something as simple as a half-hour jog), you can significantly broaden your diet, if you are for some reason watching what you eat. Why give up such delicious things as bacon, chocolate, steak, butter, ice cream, etc. when you could spend an hour and a half per week and be able to rationalize eating things you like. Seriously, I eat very poorly. I have Wendy's three or four times a week, and my weekly cheesesteak intake is around 5. I eat Edy's Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream like it's getting taken off the market (it's not, don't worry... I don't know what I'd do if that ever happened). I eat a bagel slopped with butter every morning for breakfast. But guess what, I do something physically active at least four times a week. I've been the same weight since junior high school. My cholesterol is low. My blood pressure is acceptable. I freely admit that I would be over 200 pounds if it weren't for ultimate and accompanying conditioning in the weight room and on long runs. This may take up a lot of my time, but it lets me eat whatever the fuck I want, all my friends do it, and I feel better for it.

Which leads into my second point... what ever happened to the idea of "soundness of body yields soundness of mind." I admit that I am not the best example of this, because most people would say that my mind is far from sound. Even so, when you're physically active, you feel good about yourself. This may not apply to all people, but physical activity, especially running, gives me an opportunity to shove aside all the shit I have floating around in my head and just allow myself to appreciate being alive. I think a lot of strung-out people would greatly benefit from the release that physical activity can bring to a person.

Speaking of release, if you're really looking for something to make you feel better about yourself and if you feel like you need a release, go play a team sport. Meet new people. Use anger constructively (this is a big one for me). Stay in shape.

Again, I digress. I'm going to have to conclude though, that it's really none of my business whether or not a person chooses to exercise. But here's the other side of this. If you refuse to take less than two hours a week to burn some calories/fat/black stuff, then I do not want to hear you bitching about how many calories or how much fat is in something that you want to eat, but feel you "can't." Basically, you might as well have a broken leg and complain about it constantly but refuse to go to therapy. You're bringing it on yourself, so shut the hell up, and sit there miserably eating your kale and vegan tortilla-less burritos. I don't want to hear about it.