Lazy Self-Indulgent Book Reviews

…as I mentioned previously. Five more weeks with the arm in a sling, let the good times roll.

And I was thinking about thinness, this morning, or rather ‘fitness,’ and what it looks like in our household. Industrious is a goooooood-looking man, by popular standards. He eats right, he exercises constantly (for fitness, but it’s also definitely a mood-stabilizing tool for him). He’s a backcountry skier, a biker, an aggressive strength-trainer, a fourth degree black belt, and he (used to) do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Your basic paleo-eating ‘Men’s Health’-y fish-oil clusterfuck.

Well, since I’ve known him, he blew out his knee doing stand-up BJJ (the ACL, the MCL, the cartilage, a bunch of meniscus). He cracked some ribs doing a different martial art. He loses about three toenails every winter, regardless of how carefully he gets his boots fit. He just separated the shoulder road-biking (“let’s bike, it’s less impact on your bad knee!”), but happily, we’re pretty well-prepared for that rehab thanks to the pectoral tendon tear (martial arts) back in 2003. And the dislocated finger (same bike crash.) Our good friend who bikes broke his hip in a race, we knew two of the avalanche fatalities last season, everyone’s blown an ACL, another friend broke a hand rock climbing, I fall off my horse and limp around a couple of times a year, I did my tib-fib in a skiing injury, and we’re all either skinny or ‘average’ in weight. No one is getting yelled at by their primary-care physician. (Obviously, I’m sure there are loads of outdoorsy, athletic fat people who constantly get themselves injured in stupid ways, too.)

Which is why concern-trolling on weight issues is so ridiculous to me. Should Industrious be walking around (on crutches) telling people to get out there and cut calories and be ‘active?’ Or should healthy fat people be telling him to get a fucking stationary bike and pedal slowly a couple times a week? Exercise is replacing weight as our weapon right now in the media. Be fit! Be fit! Indolence is what kills you! Or, maybe, we should all just live our lives and let everyone else live theirs.

Industrious or the mythical person getting cut out of their house: they’re both jacking up your insurance premiums. Sorry about that.