However, I come from a culture where food was scarce for centuries and “eat what’s on your plate” was a mantra at home, in the kindergarten, at the school canteen, etc and one was made feeling guilty if the plate was not licked clean. Horrible. Even to this day, the grandmothers of my children are pushing them to eat almost all the time, something that really strains our relationship because we’re teaching them to learn to listen to their bodies and eat when hungry, not when grandma tell them to.
The only exception is dinner, where it’s the only time of the day where we’re all around and all have to sit on the table.
After my dad died, I spent a lot of time at my wonderful best friend’s house. Her mother was a dream. When she served dinner, she would generally put on the plate one item that was unfamiliar to us kids. The rule was, you had to eat 2 bites of the item. If you hated it, then you didn’t have to eat any more. We learned to love a lot of foods that way.
I only wanted to share what worked for me, not to make converts! I am far away from any type of “evangelism”…
And speaking about loving grandmothers: similar behaviour in our case and it’s like I’m talking with deaf people…they’re simply stubborn - it doesn’t matter if kids are not hungry or if they even ask for something or not, grandmothers know better. Both of them. When I mentioned I am doing IF to my mother, she was very quick to say I don’t need it, this is crazy etc… Whatever, I guess it comes from a good place.
Edit: I just realised we had a proper first world problem moment! yeah too much food around, how dare they…
I appreciate your advice. As for peacocking, I think only a few (very young) males are a bit competitive, but civil. If you need or ask for help, everybody is nice, not arrogant etc. I guess you have an outdated image of how a gym looks like today, in Switzerland.
Oh, we had a few of those watches too. Truth is I could always self-motivate for running. I did track and field in my childhood up to 9th grade I think.
So I’m not a complete noob, I did run for as long as I can remember.
But running is not good for everyone; if you’re on the heavy side it’s not good for your joints, knees etc Then cycling looks like a better choice.
Yes! Absolutely, always a good crowd to hang around.
As for eating fallacies: people say the Swiss are naturally thin. Trust me, it is not my view on it. The women I know eat only salads and a bit of this and a bit of that.
My dear friend decided she has to lose weight so she can fit her high school pram dress or something like this - guess what - she followed IF!
She always mentioned she’s proud she kept her figure so am not sure why this approach. (middle life crisis perhaps) No, some people don’t look better when they try to reach their weight at 18. I am not sure what her OH thinks of it, never asked. He’s a really OK guy, I am sure he’s not encouraging her.
Anyway, bottom line is the myth of Swiss being naturally skinny is just that, a myth. At least in my experience.
They were always amazed at the quantity and variety of food displayed on our table when we had guests, which is exactly that - when we had guests! We put a lot of effort into that and the Swiss are the only ones unimpressed.
(I guess you can take people out of Eastern Europe, but you can’t take EE out of people )
I much prefer running to cycling - especially long runs on tracks and paths away from roads but it hurts one of my knees which I damaged slipping on ice - when running.
But they reckon it’s good to take some exercise with a bit of impact to improve bone density (or at least when you are older, reduces the rate of bone loss) so I still run a bit and walk.
As Tom1234 mentioned, our bodies are a mess of cells and signals (hormones).
Some years ago, researchers found that professional cyclists are at osteoporosis risk. This was a mindblowing moment because it’s hard to grasp that people that accomplish superhuman things can be “sick”…right? This is a reader friendly intro to the topic. It may contain errors, not be up-to-date with current research…but it’s a good intro https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/well/move/can-low-impact-sports-like-cycling-be-putting-your-bones-at-risk.html
The relevance of pro cyclists with osteoporosis for our average lives is that “no impact” may lead us into a lower bone density. The mechanism is not clear, but impact triggers something in our bodies that makes bone cells take in more calcium and keep it there.
Of course, if someone has joint injuries, it’s much better to cycle or swim compared to do nothing and be overweight. But, overall healthy people should not avoid impact just because it’s good for people with injuries.
There used to be a belief that any walking a professional cyclist did would detrimentally affect their cycling race performance.
Not sure it is because of this recent research or that people nowadays are happy to take part in lots of sports (think triathlon) but many elite cyclists also now run, some competitively, in their non-race season.
There’s also some evidence that running helps improve cycling performance - it certainly improves cardio-vascular performance.
As a non-competitive, recreational cyclists and runner, I’ve found that I can comfortable get my heart rate 12% higher when running than cycling (up hills).
I’m pretty sure that genetics don’t play a part as every true Swiss I have spoken to seems to have an Italian great grandfather, or an Austrian great, great grandmother.
Although the Swiss are definitely healthy from an exercise-point of view (they walk the furthest out of any country in Europe) and all seems to embrace the outdoor lifestyle, the fact that current thinking is that exercise has little bearing on weight.
It’s probably just down to culture. There isn’t that fast food culture and grazing doesn’t seem to be a thing either.
If people want to think it’s something out of peoples’ control then they ought to remember that years ago, in most European countries, there wasn’t a weight problem either.
As women too are because the levels of oestrogen decrease with age.
So maybe taking up running makes more sense.
You could have fooled me.
Maybe you should keep in check the level of inflammation that comes with these types of injuries then, not kidding now.
I actually combine sprinting with jogging to improve my muscular endurance.
Why exactly do you think that? I mean what exactly from my posts has prompted you to think that we have different “perceptions” on running. As referring to the bit you quoted, your contribution on the cycling thread seemed to imply that you prefer cycling to anything else, sorry if I misunderstood. And yes, I do run outside lately. Much more fun.
You said you damaged your knee “slipping on ice”. How serious was that? Did you check it with a doctor? I don’t have problems with my knees, I can get other pains but my knees are fine, well at least for the time being. I am not running long distances now btw, never said I do that.
And yes, there are a set of stretches and physio that can help you with your knee.
So my suggestion made sense, only if you want to consider it.
I looked for some info in support of my suggestion to visit both a doctor and a physiotherapist Runners Knee: The Ultimate Guide | S57.
How To Treat Runners Knee:
The good news is that most people recover after 6-12 weeks of Physio therapy or Sports Therapy treatment.
Generally speaking, treatment consists of exercises that focus on strengthening the muscles of the legs and hips without increasing the amount of pressure between the kneecap and the groove of the thigh bone.
"For most people, getting Runner’s Knee is simply a sign that they need to slow down their training and better prepare their body to handle the stress of long-distance running distances.
Bottom line is, don’t run through your knee pain. Be respectful of your body, but also, don’t stop and become inactive."
Someone only running indoors on treadmills will see running differently to some running through forests, along rivers, up hills and mountains and so on.
Definitely not an indoors only runner, though the weather in general has played a role here (besides I have been occasionally/semi-regularly practicing sports that require a good deal of running), but…not a marathon runner either. I try to find my optimal mileage as I don’t want injuries that we’ll set me back. I know a few people who have been suffering from avoidable (or maybe not…) injuries lately.
I don’t know, probably we are very different.
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