Perhaps in a bit of an experiment for myself, I went several weeks without any exercise, especially since my unfortunate incident back in May that left me at a rock bottom place in life (but I have since rebounded greatly, as the Gods were again there for me in my worst times).
During this time period, I also wasn't the healthiest eater. While I stayed at 3 meals a day, it wasn't a champion diet either. I did not consciously make this decision to avoid good diet and exercise, I largely just didn't care until it reached a critical point recently. I suppose I also thought that I could live without it and not really experience that much of a difference.
One morning, I got up feeling sick. Not with like a cold or flu, just physically ill and tired, even though I had slept all night. Sitting at my desk that evening, I can only describe my state of feeling as infected, like my body was filled with toxins, and perhaps my internal organs, like the liver which acts as a filter, needed a boost of some kind.
I didn't want to go to the gym at all, but I pushed myself. Jumping onto the elliptical (one of my favorite machines), I set myself to burn 500 calories, and worked out for around 2 hours. I do not exaggerate when I say that I felt like I had been given a new body. All of the previous weeks of feeling sluggish, tired and sick, were completely gone, and my mental health and outlook on life were positive and optimistic. The exercise worked the sickness out of me, and restored my energy, despite the fact that it was in the evening when I should have been tired naturally. I mean, it was so amazing that I decided to write a blog post about it.
Exercise will restore your health completely, and work the toxins and sickness out of your body, in addition to the filtering that your organs provide. And it does not matter where you are in fitness at the present time. If you go into the gym today and burn an extra 500 calories on the treadmill, you're going to feel better than when you went in. If you then eat reasonably and repeat the activity on a regular basis, you're going to lose weight and become the healthiest version of yourself.
The ancient Greeks were some of the most athletic people in all of history. Especially those who competed in the Games, they were fit and built like a stone tower. Even though there was no 2nd or 3rd place back then, and they knew that 99% of them were going to lose the event, they still perfected their bodies. They knew the benefits of the fitness would make them winners regardless.
"It's a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit." - Sokrates.
We live in a time where we presume our society to be advanced, but in many ways, it's really not. People are more depressed and sickly than ever, and in my view, it is in large thanks to the rise in physical unhealthiness. Obesity and simple laziness are more of a problem than at any time in human civilization. If we were more like the ancient Greeks, we could definitely reach a new level of advanced.
In the Goodness of the Gods,
I'll see you at the next Herm down the road,
Chris Aldridge.