Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: HEALTH (10/13/16)
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TITLE: SURVIVAL OF THE FIT | Previous Challenge Entry
By Bernard Diaz
10/17/16 -
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Were the dogs, cats, tigers, wolves, or even chickens, just created to walk? They were also created to run, and we are just like them! The Almighty gave each of us two legs, and if we are just going to walk, we will only be utilizing half their potential or capacity. As the scientifically proven phrase goes, “you lose what you don’t use”. If you don’t run, then you will lose the ability to run.
If we remove running, or the part of running in our life system, then there will be undesirable consequences. It is because running is inherent part of nature – a design.
“To exist is to persist“, said Benedictus Spinoza, a Dutch philosopher. Running is an act and attitude of persistence. It is an expression of the “will to live“. Do you want to live?
When we were young, we moved, played, and ran a lot. As we age, we tend to lessen these activities until we come to a point that we seldom move, play, or run; and that is when we retrograde. To retrograde is “to tend to or move backwards or to a worse condition”. We gradually removed that part of nature bestowed upon us.
Many of us were caught in the sedentary lifestyle, especially those working in the office, or those who went into their retirement. For others, they were caught in the cycle of work, eat, and sleep. After over many years of this pattern, our bodies stagnate, and anything in a state of stagnation, will deteriorate.
Just look at a stagnant pool of water: after many days, it will develop tiny black worms that wiggle endlessly; fungus, molds, and other bacteria organisms appear. Mosquitoes that cause malaria and dengue need stagnant water to incubate. It is their breeding habitat.
Our bodies are the same, though we deteriorate over many years, and mostly unnoticed. They come or appear in the form of sluggishness, low immunity from diseases, hypertension, irritability, nervousness, diabetes, high cholesterol level, etc.
Obesity is one of today’s prevalent maladies. It is simply caused by excessive eating of food without burning them. It is too much intake and to little output. Excess weight and idleness is a deadly combination.
When you run habitually, you will be moving to the positive/creative side of your health status. You move, and hence, will leave the state of stagnation. You will become fluid. Running makes you fluid.
Look at a stream of water in a mountain brook: it continuously runs and flows, that is why it remains clean. Trash or litter cannot remain, for they will be flowed down the stream.
I am a fifty-six year old man now but still in tip-top condition. I don’t have hypertension issue, hearth problem, diabetes, back pain, or whatever. These are the trashes that could develop and linger in my body if I was not running. I am fit. I feel like I am only forty-five! On average, I do a five-kilometer run three times a week. About four times a month, I do sprints.
I have seen men or women, some even less my age who have already suffered heart strokes and got hospitalized. Some die, some survive and are now under convalescence care and/or maintenance drugs. The debilitating effects are carried on for the rest of their lives. Running strengthens your overall body functions. Running can even slow aging, as like any other vigorous exercise; moreover, it keeps your weight under control, thus preventing obesity.
It is “survival of the fittest“, as the English philosopher Herbert Spencer termed it, pertaining to Charles Darwin’s “natural selection” mechanism. Nature selects the fit, giving more life and years. They’re the ones who remain long. Why die to soon?
Most sports involve running, like basketball, soccer, football, tennis, etc. You are fine if you are into one of these. The point here is movement, but not just any movement. Much better is rapid movement. Walking is good, but on my personal view and experience, it is not good enough. But if you can’t run because of a physical condition, then by all means, walk.
Move far away from the hospital, convalescence, maintenance drugs, or in worst case, early death. Do some running, and do it regularly for the rest of your life. Not only it is free and healthy, it will save you a lot of money.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
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