Go You Fitness - Linda Eskin

The Trump administration is a treacherous danger to the country and the world.

To be fair (and believe me, I don’t give this sadistic administration benefit of the doubt lightly), the White House statement referenced in the image (https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/establishing-the-presidents-make-america-healthy-again-commission/ ) basically says that those *health problems* are a dire threat, not the people who have them.

And that’s actually true. In the United States we waste an enormous amount of money, experience untold misery, and live shorter, less productive lives because of these health problems.  

An annoying thing about RFK is that some of what he says is correct. There *is* a lot we can do to reduce the “diseases of civilization,” including heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and others. There’s nothing crackpot about that – it is based in solid and well studied science. We *should* be eating better, moving more, sitting less, being more social, and getting out in nature.

Those are things I have been pushing for for years. We have “health insurance,“ that will pay for drugs and surgeries, but won’t pay for even a few sessions with a personal trainer or health coach to get people started down the road to better fitness and lifelonghealth. That kind of help should be available to everyone, not only the privileged. 

The problem with RFK, and this whole administration, is they think that if they don’t measure it, and don’t talk about it, and stop studying it, it will go away. (Look at what they are doing to trans people, and look at what they are doing about climate change.)

Or they endorse bogus treatments that not only don’t help people, they actively cause harm. 

A responsible and proactive government could produce PR campaigns, offer free activities, create inspiring videos, etc., to get people out and moving. It could mandate/encourage/reward businesses who provide breaks where employees have time to go for a walk, a place to move, lift, and stretch, have healthy snacks available, etc. It could provide community programs to create or clean up safe outdoor spaces to walk, run, and play.

It could encourage and enable people to spend time together in stable, supportive groups of friends – that’s one of the things *most effective* for health and longevity! That might look like requiring/encouraging companies to have predictable, steady work schedules, so that people *can* have social lives, instead of being on call and off-balance every day. Or requiring the employers pay a living wage, so people don’t have to work two jobs just to get by, barely. There are a very few programs like this, but they aren’t well known, and they need a lot more attention and funding. 

Instead, what these boneheads want to do is take away people’s medications, say they don’t have a real problem, and then declare that the issue never existed. That’s just cruel and stupid.

It can feel trivial or pointless to bother with fitness when we are surrounded by critically urgent problems. First, taking care of your body and mind is an important way to stay well and strong, and we all need that. Second, it's not an either/or choice - you can do both.

Marching for our rights, our bodies, and our futures definitely counts as a healthy outdoor physical activity with friends.

International Women's Day (IWD), this Saturday, March 8th, 2025, is over 100 years old. Exercise your rights while you exercise your body.

Find an event near you:

Women's March

When our world is falling apart (well, being destroyed), "Be active and stay fit!" might seem frivolous. It's not. It's crucial.

Do something physical - especially with others, especially if it's fun, especially outdoors. It helps you stay centered, healthy, and positive, and we all need that right now.

Go you. Let's keep moving forward, together.

A thought, as I'm working on today's newsletter:

If leaving things out where you can easily use them seems "messy," consider this: Where did the idea come from that it's OK for couches and TVs to be "left out" (usually taking up a whole room!) but mats, weights, and rowing machines should be "put away" when we're not using them?

Hmm...

Happy 2024! Getting the new year off to a good start with an environment that supports movement and activity!

One of the best things we can do is to make it easy to work out, stretch, move, and play.  I set up the space years ago when we renovated our house.

Since then it had gotten cluttered and cramped, with too many things I wasn’t using, and not enough open space. So last week I took it on. The amount of dust and cat hair was appalling. It took several passes with wet rags, paper towels, and the vacuum cleaner to get it into a reasonable condition. Got rid of some things that were in the way, too.

Now it is back to being an inviting and convenient place to be active.

It used to be the family room, and is right off the kitchen – not down the hall in a spare bedroom nobody visits, or a corner of a cold basement.

You don’t have to turn an entire major room into a play area, but what could you do to make it easier, more inviting, and more fun to work out more often? 

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Here is a fun video reinforcing the idea of that strength and hypertrophy (building big muscles) are two different things. Getting strong does not make you big.