Overheard at the Gym or non-work places

[MgoSam]

Because the Work and FB threads are huge, I thought it would be high time to start a new one. My main motivation were two conversations I've had at my gym in the past week. I go to a kickboxing gym that costs me much more than LA Fitness would, but I think it's worth it.

Situation 1
Person: I don't like coming all that much
Me: Ok, that makes sense, have you considered changing your membership (instead of unlimited to paying by the class).
Person: No

The conversation continued and he said that he wasn't enjoying it here because he isn't dropping weight.
Me: You mentioned that you eat fast food as lot, could it be that?
Person- makes lots of excuses why he has to eat fast food, revolves around the fact that he's in his car during most work hours.
Me: Have you considered packing snacks and other things
Person- I can't have __, or ___, or ____. Seems his body can't handle anything, except fast food.

I finished stretching and walked away, making a mental note to avoid being paired up with him.

Situation 2
A guy I've become friends with and we usually train together mentioned to me yesterday that he spent 4 grand over the weekend. The details are hazy, but most of it revolves around him getting drunk and buying shots and other things. I can't imagine spending 4 grand over a weekend. Heck, last week I decided not to go to a wedding in the Fall because I figured it would cost around $1000 all-told and I wouldn't know anyone there but the groom.

Anyone else have fun/interesting stories to share?

[Nederstash]

Regarding situation 1, don't be reluctant to be paired up with him. You might knock some sense into him.

[Stachey]

A funny thing happened on the weekend and this seems like the perfect place to talk about it.

I was in line with about 400 other people to see one of the funniest plays I've ever seen.  The line snaked past a bar and one of the regulars was standing outside smoking and making fun of all the people standing in line for the play.  She made a comment along the lines of how ridiculous it was for us to waste our lives standing in this line.  This from a person who spends most of her life standing outside in all kinds of shitty weather sucking on a tube of tobacco. 

So I calculated how much of her life was wasted smoking cigarettes not to mention how much money she has literally sent up in smoke.  If a former coworker was anything to go by...he would spend 15 minutes of every hour smoking...so that's ten cigarettes that I saw (I'm sure there were more per day)...so that is 912 hours per year standing outside smoking!   I have no idea what cigarettes cost but that's a lot of dough up in smoke.

[MgoSam]

Regarding situation 1, don't be reluctant to be paired up with him. You might knock some sense into him.

You're right in that regards, but in general I just can't stand talking to him. Everything he says is so negative, and I don't like being around negative people, especially during class. During class I try to train with people that are more fit or determined than I am because we can feed off each other's energy. I've noticed that when I'm with someone that isn't motivated, I don't get nearly as much out of a class. This past Friday I paired up with a MMA fighter and loved how much harder I was able to kick as I was trying to keep up with him. Though he's a professional and has 30 pounds on me, I did fairly well.

Edit: What's funny is that the guy from Situation 2 is among my favorites to train with. He's attitude towards nearly all the drills is, "Be the last person standing," and it's challenging to train with him.

[novynova]

On the phone with a friend of mine
Friend: I'm going to save $100,000 over the next three years
Me: (quickly does the math) that's like $900 a week, on your salary (1300 a week in NYC), that's pretty aggressive but i like it! you're going to have to be incredibly disciplined to make it work.
Friend: yeah, i'm tired of being broke and i'm ready.

- 2 minutes later in the convo

Friend: I booked a trip to Las Vegas for this October...
Me: Whelp, that was quick.

[Miss Piggy]

Me: Have you considered packing snacks and other things
Person- I can't have __, or ___, or ____. Seems his body can't handle anything, except fast food.

Ummmm....I'm as guilty of eating fast food as the next guy (though not this often), but come on. If you can eat fast food several times a week, you have a gut of steel and can eat anything!

[Inaya]

Just the thread I needed. I had Food Network on for noise while I was puttering around in the kitchen last night (cable TV is free in our building) and heard two commercials that pretty much sum up everything wrong with our consumer culture.


The first was for a "dental salon"--whatever that is--and I pretty much tuned it out until the very end when the voiceover lady said, "...so you can get the care you deserve."


The other one was for some sort of cable TV package or something (tuned it out again), and it concluded with, "...and get the TV package you deserve."


I am allllmost okay with the dental one. Everyone deserves a basic level of healthcare, including dentistry. It could be argued that's what they meant--I know it wasn't, but it could be argued! But the TV package? Nobody deserves a cable TV package. I don't understand why anyone would even think they deserve a cable TV package. I know it was phrasing meant to appeal to the pathos of the consumer because cable companies know that cord cutters are out there. But it boggles my mind that somebody could be tricked into paying for cable TV because some commercial said they deserve it.

[GuitarStv]

Me: Have you considered packing snacks and other things
Person- I can't have __, or ___, or ____. Seems his body can't handle anything, except fast food.

Ummmm....I'm as guilty of eating fast food as the next guy (though not this often), but come on. If you can eat fast food several times a week, you have a gut of steel and can eat anything!

It's very trendy to have pretend dietary restrictions these days.  Look at the explosion of gluten free foods everywhere . . .

[Papa Mustache]

A funny thing happened on the weekend and this seems like the perfect place to talk about it.

I was in line with about 400 other people to see one of the funniest plays I've ever seen.  The line snaked past a bar and one of the regulars was standing outside smoking and making fun of all the people standing in line for the play.  She made a comment along the lines of how ridiculous it was for us to waste our lives standing in this line.  This from a person who spends most of her life standing outside in all kinds of shitty weather sucking on a tube of tobacco. 

So I calculated how much of her life was wasted smoking cigarettes not to mention how much money she has literally sent up in smoke.  If a former coworker was anything to go by...he would spend 15 minutes of every hour smoking...so that's ten cigarettes that I saw (I'm sure there were more per day)...so that is 912 hours per year standing outside smoking!   I have no idea what cigarettes cost but that's a lot of dough up in smoke.

Google tells me that three are 200 cigs in a carton and a brand name carton of cigs costs roughly $40.

[UKMustache]

I have a non-work / non-facebook one from today.

As a result of my reluctance to use the emergency fund to pay an unexpected bill, I'm having a clear out and selling a lot of things on ebay.

One of those items is a designer nail polish with a value of $40.  I received a message today from someone saying that they are broke until payday, do I mind waiting 8 days for payment.

While I paused for a moment to consider if I should be selling a $40 nail polish to someone who has no money left the week before payday; I've decided that if I don't someone else will.

[Paul der Krake]

Me: Have you considered packing snacks and other things
Person- I can't have __, or ___, or ____. Seems his body can't handle anything, except fast food.

Ummmm....I'm as guilty of eating fast food as the next guy (though not this often), but come on. If you can eat fast food several times a week, you have a gut of steel and can eat anything!

It's very trendy to have pretend dietary restrictions these days.  Look at the explosion of gluten free foods everywhere . . .

Gluten allergy is the new ADHD, which itself was the new "I've got big bones".

Finding imaginary health problems has taken over baseball as America's pastime.

[Giro]

Just the thread I needed. I had Food Network on for noise while I was puttering around in the kitchen last night (cable TV is free in our building) and heard two commercials that pretty much sum up everything wrong with our consumer culture.


The first was for a "dental salon"--whatever that is--and I pretty much tuned it out until the very end when the voiceover lady said, "...so you can get the care you deserve."


The other one was for some sort of cable TV package or something (tuned it out again), and it concluded with, "...and get the TV package you deserve."


I am allllmost okay with the dental one. Everyone deserves a basic level of healthcare, including dentistry. It could be argued that's what they meant--I know it wasn't, but it could be argued! But the TV package? Nobody deserves a cable TV package. I don't understand why anyone would even think they deserve a cable TV package. I know it was phrasing meant to appeal to the pathos of the consumer because cable companies know that cord cutters are out there. But it boggles my mind that somebody could be tricked into paying for cable TV because some commercial said they deserve it.

I get really annoyed with the "I deserve" crap all over the tv and radio.  It's pretty disgusting.  I don't think people deserve a dentist catering to their nasty teeth either.  But then, I don't think people DESERVE basic health care.  If you can pay for the service that someone trained and paid for, then yea, you deserve the treatment for which you pay...but if you don't, then you don't.

just because it's health care or dentistry doesn't make it any different than massages and pedicures.  Someone is providing a service to you.  You deserve what you pay for. 

[MgoSam]

Me: Have you considered packing snacks and other things
Person- I can't have __, or ___, or ____. Seems his body can't handle anything, except fast food.

Ummmm....I'm as guilty of eating fast food as the next guy (though not this often), but come on. If you can eat fast food several times a week, you have a gut of steel and can eat anything!

It's very trendy to have pretend dietary restrictions these days.  Look at the explosion of gluten free foods everywhere . . .

Gluten allergy is the new ADHD, which itself was the new "I've got big bones".

Finding imaginary health problems has taken over baseball as America's pastime.

I didn't take that he had some new and exciting food restriction, just that he's a complainer that would rather bitch about his problems than actually take ownership of them and try to figure them out.

[SunshineAZ]

Me: Have you considered packing snacks and other things
Person- I can't have __, or ___, or ____. Seems his body can't handle anything, except fast food.

Ummmm....I'm as guilty of eating fast food as the next guy (though not this often), but come on. If you can eat fast food several times a week, you have a gut of steel and can eat anything!

It's very trendy to have pretend dietary restrictions these days.  Look at the explosion of gluten free foods everywhere . . .

Gluten allergy is the new ADHD, which itself was the new "I've got big bones".

Finding imaginary health problems has taken over baseball as America's pastime.

Funny related video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oht9AEq1798

[mm1970]

Me: Have you considered packing snacks and other things
Person- I can't have __, or ___, or ____. Seems his body can't handle anything, except fast food.

Ummmm....I'm as guilty of eating fast food as the next guy (though not this often), but come on. If you can eat fast food several times a week, you have a gut of steel and can eat anything!

It's very trendy to have pretend dietary restrictions these days.  Look at the explosion of gluten free foods everywhere . . .

Gluten allergy is the new ADHD, which itself was the new "I've got big bones".

Finding imaginary health problems has taken over baseball as America's pastime.

Some people do actually have diagnosed gluten problems, and some people have just found that they feel better without it, through experimentation.  (Experimentation is big in my health-conscious area, and many of my over-40 friends are willing and able to just try stuff.  I have a couple of friends who are in the medical field who had patients wax about how great it was to be gluten free.  After years of hearing it, one of my friends - a PA - gave it a shot.  Wow, it cleared up a bunch of her low lying symptoms like constipation, that she had been taking meds for.  Now, she has no diagnosed gluten allergy, just finds that her body functions better without it.) 

You can pry my bread from my cold, dead hands.  Unless I start having weird symptoms and have to cut it out.

Also, ADHD is a real thing too.  Are you suggesting it's not?  or that it's over diagnosed?  My own personal opinion is that we are learning new things all the time on how the body and brain function.  Just look at the new info on gut bacteria and how it affects...everything.

Most of the people I know fall into the more "picky eater" category.  As in "don't like vegetables."  "How do I lose weight,I LITERALLY can't eat any of this because I don't like vegetables!!"

[Paul der Krake]

Gluten intolerance, ADHD, and even having big bones are real things with real victims. But they are over-diagnosed and self-diagnosed.

I lived for a total of 21 years having never heard of ADHD- then I moved to the US and suddenly it was everywhere. Until I hear a reasonable explanation for young Caucasian Americans to suffer from ADHD at rates 10 times higher than their European counterparts (whom they share common ancestry with!), I will continue rolling my eyes. It's a convenient way to brush off poor impulses as something that's out of someone's control.

[NoVa]

A funny thing happened on the weekend and this seems like the perfect place to talk about it.

I was in line with about 400 other people to see one of the funniest plays I've ever seen.  The line snaked past a bar and one of the regulars was standing outside smoking and making fun of all the people standing in line for the play.  She made a comment along the lines of how ridiculous it was for us to waste our lives standing in this line.  This from a person who spends most of her life standing outside in all kinds of shitty weather sucking on a tube of tobacco. 

So I calculated how much of her life was wasted smoking cigarettes not to mention how much money she has literally sent up in smoke.  If a former coworker was anything to go by...he would spend 15 minutes of every hour smoking...so that's ten cigarettes that I saw (I'm sure there were more per day)...so that is 912 hours per year standing outside smoking!   I have no idea what cigarettes cost but that's a lot of dough up in smoke.

Google tells me that three are 200 cigs in a carton and a brand name carton of cigs costs roughly $40.

People like this rarely buy a carton, it's a pack at a time. Too broke to buy the carton. :)

jfolsen

[Papa Mustache]

I've never been a smoker. How many cigarettes does the average smoker consume in a day?

[mm1970]

Gluten intolerance, ADHD, and even having big bones are real things with real victims. But they are over-diagnosed and self-diagnosed.

I lived for a total of 21 years having never heard of ADHD- then I moved to the US and suddenly it was everywhere. Until I hear a reasonable explanation for young Caucasian Americans to suffer from ADHD at rates 10 times higher than their European counterparts (whom they share common ancestry with!), I will continue rolling my eyes. It's a convenient way to brush off poor impulses as something that's out of someone's control.

Well, some of it is likely genetic (my brother in law and my nephew both suffer from it).

Some of it might be linked to diet and gut bacteria.  Gut bacteria is affected by childbirth and breastfeeding rates.  Of course, the diets of many Americans are atrocious, and some parents have found a great improvement in ADHD symptoms by cutting out certain foods.  I was reading somewhere, recently, that there's a possible link to Tylenol usage during pregnancy to ADHD.  (And for anecdotes where n=1, or in this case, 4, one of my friends with 4 kids has 3 with ADHD and one without...and she took a lot of tylenol during the 3 pregnancies.)  And then there is the potential link to the age of the father.  That's more autism though, I think.

So, plenty of possibilities in the environmental arena, vs. genetics.  Which I agree, are similar between Caucasian Americans and areas of Europe.

[Inaya]

Gluten intolerance, ADHD, and even having big bones are real things with real victims. But they are over-diagnosed and self-diagnosed.

I lived for a total of 21 years having never heard of ADHD- then I moved to the US and suddenly it was everywhere. Until I hear a reasonable explanation for young Caucasian Americans to suffer from ADHD at rates 10 times higher than their European counterparts (whom they share common ancestry with!), I will continue rolling my eyes. It's a convenient way to brush off poor impulses as something that's out of someone's control.

Well, some of it is likely genetic (my brother in law and my nephew both suffer from it).

Some of it might be linked to diet and gut bacteria.  Gut bacteria is affected by childbirth and breastfeeding rates.  Of course, the diets of many Americans are atrocious, and some parents have found a great improvement in ADHD symptoms by cutting out certain foods.  I was reading somewhere, recently, that there's a possible link to Tylenol usage during pregnancy to ADHD.  (And for anecdotes where n=1, or in this case, 4, one of my friends with 4 kids has 3 with ADHD and one without...and she took a lot of tylenol during the 3 pregnancies.)  And then there is the potential link to the age of the father.  That's more autism though, I think.

So, plenty of possibilities in the environmental arena, vs. genetics.  Which I agree, are similar between Caucasian Americans and areas of Europe.

I tend to suspect that (during the 90s, at least) ADHD became a stand in for "being a teenager/kid". A very large fraction of my classmates were "diagnosed"  with ADHD (ADD in my case) and prescribed ritalin because the parents wanted to "cure" their teenagers of their teenager-ness (or "cure" their younger child of absolutely normal child hyperactivity). Obviously this is totally anecdotal, but it makes sense to me in retrospect. It doesn't seem to be diagnosed nearly as often in kids these days (but I don't have a kid or much contact with kids, so my perception may be way skewed).

[MgoSam]

Gluten intolerance, ADHD, and even having big bones are real things with real victims. But they are over-diagnosed and self-diagnosed.

I lived for a total of 21 years having never heard of ADHD- then I moved to the US and suddenly it was everywhere. Until I hear a reasonable explanation for young Caucasian Americans to suffer from ADHD at rates 10 times higher than their European counterparts (whom they share common ancestry with!), I will continue rolling my eyes. It's a convenient way to brush off poor impulses as something that's out of someone's control.

Well, some of it is likely genetic (my brother in law and my nephew both suffer from it).

Some of it might be linked to diet and gut bacteria.  Gut bacteria is affected by childbirth and breastfeeding rates.  Of course, the diets of many Americans are atrocious, and some parents have found a great improvement in ADHD symptoms by cutting out certain foods.  I was reading somewhere, recently, that there's a possible link to Tylenol usage during pregnancy to ADHD.  (And for anecdotes where n=1, or in this case, 4, one of my friends with 4 kids has 3 with ADHD and one without...and she took a lot of tylenol during the 3 pregnancies.)  And then there is the potential link to the age of the father.  That's more autism though, I think.

So, plenty of possibilities in the environmental arena, vs. genetics.  Which I agree, are similar between Caucasian Americans and areas of Europe.

I tend to suspect that (during the 90s, at least) ADHD became a stand in for "being a teenager/kid". A very large fraction of my classmates were "diagnosed"  with ADHD (ADD in my case) and prescribed ritalin because the parents wanted to "cure" their teenagers of their teenager-ness (or "cure" their younger child of absolutely normal child hyperactivity). Obviously this is totally anecdotal, but it makes sense to me in retrospect. It doesn't seem to be diagnosed nearly as often in kids these days (but I don't have a kid or much contact with kids, so my perception may be way skewed).

Also kids are spending less time outdoors and are less active at school (PE has been reduced as has recess). In the book "Spark" Ratay has a compelling point for how exercise can drastically increase attention span, and in schools that have revamped their PE has discovered that as a result the students test out far better, have more focus, and are less likely to get into trouble (presumably due to boredom and irritability reduced due to exercise).

[Dollar Slice]

So I calculated how much of her life was wasted smoking cigarettes not to mention how much money she has literally sent up in smoke.  If a former coworker was anything to go by...he would spend 15 minutes of every hour smoking...so that's ten cigarettes that I saw (I'm sure there were more per day)...so that is 912 hours per year standing outside smoking!

I had a couple of good friends visit last year who were both smokers... I was *astonished* at how much time it took out of our day. It was just this constant, nagging thing, anytime there was any kind of transition (just finished/about to start dinner, just got off/about to get on the subway,  just left/about to enter the apartment, etc.) we would all have to stand around and wait for them to smoke. I can't imagine how much they were spending, I think this is the most expensive place to buy cigarettes in the US. ($12+ a pack)

[cheapass]

Most of the people I know fall into the more "picky eater" category.  As in "don't like vegetables."  "How do I lose weight,I LITERALLY can't eat any of this because I don't like vegetables!!"

I read a great quote one time that went something like "In order to effect true change on your body, you need to stop eating what/when you want and instead start eating what/when you must." Sure, brownies and cookies taste better than fish and vegetables but part of being an adult is having willpower and impulse/emotional control. We don't need to "reward" ourselves with food, we're not canines.

If someone wants to change, they'll make it happen. If they don't then they'll bitch about it and make excuses. Same thing with budgeting and finance - a little personal responsibility goes a long way.

[LiveLean]

Gluten intolerance, ADHD, and even having big bones are real things with real victims. But they are over-diagnosed and self-diagnosed.

I lived for a total of 21 years having never heard of ADHD- then I moved to the US and suddenly it was everywhere. Until I hear a reasonable explanation for young Caucasian Americans to suffer from ADHD at rates 10 times higher than their European counterparts (whom they share common ancestry with!), I will continue rolling my eyes. It's a convenient way to brush off poor impulses as something that's out of someone's control.

Alan Schwarz, until recently of The New York Times, has what no doubt will be a terrific book on this topic called ADHD Nation coming out on Sept. 6. He has covered the ADHD "epidemic" for years.

[zolotiyeruki]

I don't normally listen to the radio, but when my kids requested it tonight, I turned it on.  What did I hear?  A commercial for a home equity loan.  The woman in the commercial was going to use it....to buy a race horse (and all the associated expenses).

[RetiredAt63]

Me: Have you considered packing snacks and other things
Person- I can't have __, or ___, or ____. Seems his body can't handle anything, except fast food.

Ummmm....I'm as guilty of eating fast food as the next guy (though not this often), but come on. If you can eat fast food several times a week, you have a gut of steel and can eat anything!

Maybe he eats fast food so frequently that when he does eat something healthy his gut doesn't know what to do with it. If he stuck with eating healthy for a while his gut would adapt. In the short term it might feel like he "can't" eat some things without discomfort, but in the long term it would be fine.

Your digestive tract produces the enzymes to digest what you normally eat.  If you change what you are eating it has to adjust, and the adjustment period can be difficult.  Not only do people who go low carb have an adjustment period, people who eat low fat and then have a big holiday meal (i.e. Thanksgiving turkey) eat a lot more fat than usual and their gall bladder has issues.

You can get a fairly healthy diet eating fast food, but it sounds like this guy doesn't.

[boarder42]

Regarding situation 1, don't be reluctant to be paired up with him. You might knock some sense into him.

You're right in that regards, but in general I just can't stand talking to him. Everything he says is so negative, and I don't like being around negative people, especially during class. During class I try to train with people that are more fit or determined than I am because we can feed off each other's energy. I've noticed that when I'm with someone that isn't motivated, I don't get nearly as much out of a class. This past Friday I paired up with a MMA fighter and loved how much harder I was able to kick as I was trying to keep up with him. Though he's a professional and has 30 pounds on me, I did fairly well.

Edit: What's funny is that the guy from Situation 2 is among my favorites to train with. He's attitude towards nearly all the drills is, "Be the last person standing," and it's challenging to train with him.

its extremely funny that people think working out makes you lose weight.  nope it can help but 100% of weightloss is what you put in your body.  working out is to get you physically fit.

[GuitarStv]

Regarding situation 1, don't be reluctant to be paired up with him. You might knock some sense into him.

You're right in that regards, but in general I just can't stand talking to him. Everything he says is so negative, and I don't like being around negative people, especially during class. During class I try to train with people that are more fit or determined than I am because we can feed off each other's energy. I've noticed that when I'm with someone that isn't motivated, I don't get nearly as much out of a class. This past Friday I paired up with a MMA fighter and loved how much harder I was able to kick as I was trying to keep up with him. Though he's a professional and has 30 pounds on me, I did fairly well.

Edit: What's funny is that the guy from Situation 2 is among my favorites to train with. He's attitude towards nearly all the drills is, "Be the last person standing," and it's challenging to train with him.

its extremely funny that people think working out makes you lose weight.  nope it can help but 100% of weightloss is what you put in your body.  working out is to get you physically fit.

Being physically fit makes it much easier to lose weight though.

- A 200 lb man with 15% body fat burns more calories even when resting than a 200 lb man with 50% body fat . . . purely because muscle requires more fuel.

- A 200 lb man cycling at a hard pace for four hours will burn in the ballpark of 4000 calories.

The thing is, to get the muscles that burn more calories you need to be pretty fit.  To be able to sustain a hard pace on a bike for four hours you need to be pretty fit.  Going to the gym can get you fit, which can make weight loss much easier.

[boarder42]

Regarding situation 1, don't be reluctant to be paired up with him. You might knock some sense into him.

You're right in that regards, but in general I just can't stand talking to him. Everything he says is so negative, and I don't like being around negative people, especially during class. During class I try to train with people that are more fit or determined than I am because we can feed off each other's energy. I've noticed that when I'm with someone that isn't motivated, I don't get nearly as much out of a class. This past Friday I paired up with a MMA fighter and loved how much harder I was able to kick as I was trying to keep up with him. Though he's a professional and has 30 pounds on me, I did fairly well.

Edit: What's funny is that the guy from Situation 2 is among my favorites to train with. He's attitude towards nearly all the drills is, "Be the last person standing," and it's challenging to train with him.

its extremely funny that people think working out makes you lose weight.  nope it can help but 100% of weightloss is what you put in your body.  working out is to get you physically fit.

Being physically fit makes it much easier to lose weight though.

- A 200 lb man with 15% body fat burns more calories even when resting than a 200 lb man with 50% body fat . . . purely because muscle requires more fuel.

- A 200 lb man cycling at a hard pace for four hours will burn in the ballpark of 4000 calories.

The thing is, to get the muscles that burn more calories you need to be pretty fit.  To be able to sustain a hard pace on a bike for four hours you need to be pretty fit.  Going to the gym can get you fit, which can make weight loss much easier.

yeah as i said it can help.  but i can drop 5 lbs a week on a paleo like diet.  5lbs of almost pure fat with out working out.  i can also go work out everyday and eat a billion calories of processed fast food.  working out in that case doesnt really help.  too many people trick themselves into thinking its what you do to lose weight. when in reality our diets are so F'd up in this country you cant really lose weight just by working out you must adjust your diet as well. 

[GuitarStv]

It's not possible to only lose fat while dieting and being sedentary.  That's not how your body and metabolism work.  Following a paleo, low carb, or ketogenic diet doesn't magically change this.

[mm1970]

Gluten intolerance, ADHD, and even having big bones are real things with real victims. But they are over-diagnosed and self-diagnosed.

I lived for a total of 21 years having never heard of ADHD- then I moved to the US and suddenly it was everywhere. Until I hear a reasonable explanation for young Caucasian Americans to suffer from ADHD at rates 10 times higher than their European counterparts (whom they share common ancestry with!), I will continue rolling my eyes. It's a convenient way to brush off poor impulses as something that's out of someone's control.

Well, some of it is likely genetic (my brother in law and my nephew both suffer from it).

Some of it might be linked to diet and gut bacteria.  Gut bacteria is affected by childbirth and breastfeeding rates.  Of course, the diets of many Americans are atrocious, and some parents have found a great improvement in ADHD symptoms by cutting out certain foods.  I was reading somewhere, recently, that there's a possible link to Tylenol usage during pregnancy to ADHD.  (And for anecdotes where n=1, or in this case, 4, one of my friends with 4 kids has 3 with ADHD and one without...and she took a lot of tylenol during the 3 pregnancies.)  And then there is the potential link to the age of the father.  That's more autism though, I think.

So, plenty of possibilities in the environmental arena, vs. genetics.  Which I agree, are similar between Caucasian Americans and areas of Europe.

I tend to suspect that (during the 90s, at least) ADHD became a stand in for "being a teenager/kid". A very large fraction of my classmates were "diagnosed"  with ADHD (ADD in my case) and prescribed ritalin because the parents wanted to "cure" their teenagers of their teenager-ness (or "cure" their younger child of absolutely normal child hyperactivity). Obviously this is totally anecdotal, but it makes sense to me in retrospect. It doesn't seem to be diagnosed nearly as often in kids these days (but I don't have a kid or much contact with kids, so my perception may be way skewed).

Also kids are spending less time outdoors and are less active at school (PE has been reduced as has recess). In the book "Spark" Ratay has a compelling point for how exercise can drastically increase attention span, and in schools that have revamped their PE has discovered that as a result the students test out far better, have more focus, and are less likely to get into trouble (presumably due to boredom and irritability reduced due to exercise).

This is a big thing too.  Living in So Cal, my school aged child gets a lot of opportunity to play outdoors.  They have free play before school starts if you are there early enough.  They have recess - and they finally scheduled recess BEFORE lunch.  Because otherwise, kids were rushing through lunch or just not eating so they could play.  So they get recess.  AND they can play at the end of lunch period AND he's in after school care where they basically run them.

However, I picked him up from the first day of school directly.  We went out to dinner because family was visiting.  After about 20 mins, both boys were "done" and wanted to leave.  (Right when family member ordered a second drink, oy).  So I took them outside.  They proceeded to RUN up and down the sidewalk for 20 minutes.  My 10 year old said "I feel like I've been sitting ALL DAY".  Which, yeah.  Compared to the summer of summer camps - games, swimming, whatever - you have been.

I've read about schools that get good results by replacing desk chairs with exercise balls.

My 60 year old coworker and I were discussing how we get stressed and irritable when we don't get enough exercise.

[AlanStache]

...

Your digestive tract produces the enzymes to digest what you normally eat.  If you change what you are eating it has to adjust, and the adjustment period can be difficult.  Not only do people who go low carb have an adjustment period, people who eat low fat and then have a big holiday meal (i.e. Thanksgiving turkey) eat a lot more fat than usual and their gall bladder has issues.

I saw this a few months back with when I started tracking what I eat, I made no attempt to change what I ate but just the act of writing it down caused changes in intake and resulted in internal uncomfortableness.

[boarder42]

It's not possible to only lose fat while dieting and being sedentary.  That's not how your body and metabolism work.  Following a paleo, low carb, or ketogenic diet doesn't magically change this.

see the word almost up there.  its a powerful word b/c its not all or only or always.  and most people arent 100% sedentary regardless. so yeah i guess we agree.  but your inference that i said what you said is incorrect.

[LiveLean]

This isn't necessarily gym-related, but I heard it at the gym today....

A middle-aged woman approached a kid who is a June graduate of a very expensive private high school.

"So when are you headed to college?"

"Already started. I'm going to (local community college.)"

"What are you taking?"

"Oh, College Algebra, Psychology, English, a bunch of BS. It doesn't matter. I'm going to be a Navy SEAL."

I'm sure his parents are thrilled that after spending $70K on his high school education he's mailing it in at community college on the 1-in-5 chance that he gets through BUD/S. Judging by his workouts, I'll give him a 1-in-1,000 chance.

[Dollar Slice]

Stopped by to see a friend at his bartending job after work today, and was half overhearing a conversation between two guys who were clearly mustachian vs. anti-mustachian. The mustachian guy kept trying to slip money-saving hints into their conversation. Things you can deduct as a business expense, wouldn't you save money if you and your wife were on a family plan, you know you can get much cheaper phones that work just as well, have you looked into alternative cell phone plans, etc. Good stuff. Then they moved on to investing when Mr. Anti-MMM said something about how he hasn't bought any stocks in years, and the mustachian guy said he should set up automatic investments. (I bet he has an index fund.)

Should have introduced myself to him... maybe he's on the forum! :-)

[Papa Mustache]

Gluten intolerance, ADHD, and even having big bones are real things with real victims. But they are over-diagnosed and self-diagnosed.

I lived for a total of 21 years having never heard of ADHD- then I moved to the US and suddenly it was everywhere. Until I hear a reasonable explanation for young Caucasian Americans to suffer from ADHD at rates 10 times higher than their European counterparts (whom they share common ancestry with!), I will continue rolling my eyes. It's a convenient way to brush off poor impulses as something that's out of someone's control.

Alan Schwarz, until recently of The New York Times, has what no doubt will be a terrific book on this topic called ADHD Nation coming out on Sept. 6. He has covered the ADHD "epidemic" for years.

I never could figure why the answers to this weren't obvious. A small percentage of the population very well might have a real problem.

Everyone else is just being kids. A parent ought to understand their child before the child is kindergarten age.

Tired babies fidgetand get fussy. Junky food can magnify this. Same with kids.

Apply exercise (or work in the form of chores), plenty of play time opportunities and good food - and most of the problems will sort themselves out. Free play time - not just rule based games. I hated field day in school. You can play but you can only play following these rules. Hey teacher, I just want to go climb a tree or a big rock. Give us a basketball so we can put together a game of horse or just shoot some baskets. How about a Frisbee?

ADHD was/is just a means to sell more pills for some pharmaceutical company IMHO. An easy way for people to manage children.

Put a few classrooms of "unsettled" children together and they are going to pick on each other and be hard to manage. Just like siblings.

Our son was "diagnosed" by his teacher to have ADHD. She was the problem. She expected everyone to sit still, work quietly on busy work, very little play time, etc. Sort of like expecting the boys in her room to quietly sit in a circle and sew. Ain't going to happen. Kids want to be more active than that. When she revealed that she preferred girls to boys in her classroom b/c they were easier to manage - I knew she was the problem.

Why can't we look at the world and see what the best practices are around the globe and follow suit? The answers are right in front of us but the American "mechanism" seems to come with a price tag.   

[boarder42]

Gluten intolerance, ADHD, and even having big bones are real things with real victims. But they are over-diagnosed and self-diagnosed.

I lived for a total of 21 years having never heard of ADHD- then I moved to the US and suddenly it was everywhere. Until I hear a reasonable explanation for young Caucasian Americans to suffer from ADHD at rates 10 times higher than their European counterparts (whom they share common ancestry with!), I will continue rolling my eyes. It's a convenient way to brush off poor impulses as something that's out of someone's control.

Alan Schwarz, until recently of The New York Times, has what no doubt will be a terrific book on this topic called ADHD Nation coming out on Sept. 6. He has covered the ADHD "epidemic" for years.

I never could figure why the answers to this weren't obvious. A small percentage of the population very well might have a real problem.

Everyone else is just being kids. A parent ought to understand their child before the child is kindergarten age.

Tired babies fidgetand get fussy. Junky food can magnify this. Same with kids.

Apply exercise (or work in the form of chores), plenty of play time opportunities and good food - and most of the problems will sort themselves out. Free play time - not just rule based games. I hated field day in school. You can play but you can only play following these rules. Hey teacher, I just want to go climb a tree or a big rock. Give us a basketball so we can put together a game of horse or just shoot some baskets. How about a Frisbee?

ADHD was/is just a means to sell more pills for some pharmaceutical company IMHO. An easy way for people to manage children.

Put a few classrooms of "unsettled" children together and they are going to pick on each other and be hard to manage. Just like siblings.

Our son was "diagnosed" by his teacher to have ADHD. She was the problem. She expected everyone to sit still, work quietly on busy work, very little play time, etc. Sort of like expecting the boys in her room to quietly sit in a circle and sew. Ain't going to happen. Kids want to be more active than that. When she revealed that she preferred girls to boys in her classroom b/c they were easier to manage - I knew she was the problem.

Why can't we look at the world and see what the best practices are around the globe and follow suit? The answers are right in front of us but the American "mechanism" seems to come with a price tag.

definitely over diagnosed i do have it ... but dont take meds for it as i've learned how to use it to my advantage.  super glad i wasnt diagnosed at a young age in the rural school i attended or i would likely be a much different human b/c of it. my kids will never take the medication but we will use the tools i used to help them if they are ever diagnosed.

[NykkiC]

Saw a sign while heading to the library that read 'shop, because being an adult is hard'. If it hadn't been outside a Red Cross op shop I would have gone and gotn a piece of paper to stick on it saying 'don't shop, because being an adult is less hard when you save money'.

Honestly, just because its trying to encourage people to buy at a shop to fund good works doesn't make the message any less dangerous.

[Shalamar]

 

A commercial for a home equity loan.  The woman in the commercial was going to use it....to buy a race horse (and all the associated expenses).

I keep seeing ads in our local paper about getting a loan to buy a cabin at the lake "so that you can have the summer you deserve."

[Travis]

Just the thread I needed. I had Food Network on for noise while I was puttering around in the kitchen last night (cable TV is free in our building) and heard two commercials that pretty much sum up everything wrong with our consumer culture.


The first was for a "dental salon"--whatever that is--and I pretty much tuned it out until the very end when the voiceover lady said, "...so you can get the care you deserve."


The other one was for some sort of cable TV package or something (tuned it out again), and it concluded with, "...and get the TV package you deserve."


I am allllmost okay with the dental one. Everyone deserves a basic level of healthcare, including dentistry. It could be argued that's what they meant--I know it wasn't, but it could be argued! But the TV package? Nobody deserves a cable TV package. I don't understand why anyone would even think they deserve a cable TV package. I know it was phrasing meant to appeal to the pathos of the consumer because cable companies know that cord cutters are out there. But it boggles my mind that somebody could be tricked into paying for cable TV because some commercial said they deserve it.

I've been spoiled by a low information diet. Normally we don't watch television, but we watched the Olympics this month which came with having to sit through commercials. What total crap we had to endure...

[cavewoman]

The overheard anywhere stories are my favorite. Posting so this shows up in my new replies link.

[mm1970]

Overheard at the beach yesterday...we had a back to school party at the beach. One of the moms (who just quit her job because she couldn't deal with it anymore.  And, I can sympathize there.) - couldn't find her flip flops.  Searched all over, had several other moms and dads helping.  I didn't help other than to take a casual look - they were black, as were mine, and 90% of the other shoes there.

But she and a couple of the other moms were freaking out because they were ... OMG ... Tory Burch and like $185 shoes!!  I made a crack about my $5 shoes from Kmart (not to the owner, but to one of the people helping look), but I guess I should have been more sympathetic.

Anyway, in the end she didn't find them, and had left them off to the side near the stairs.  They were probably stolen.

Who wears $185 flip flops to the beach??

Plus I lamented with a dad about work and cost of living and how hard it is.  (As we also discussed the general disillusionment with work in your 40s with young kids).  "There's no money left at the end of the month!"  At the end of the beach day, my family went home to a frozen Costco pizza ($3), a quick quesadilla ($1), and some vegetables ($2), and they went to a seafood restaurant where the cheapest meal is $20 (per person).  I figured I "saved" $100 easily.

[Shalamar]

That reminds me of when a friend had her car broken into, and her purse was stolen.   She told me later about making the police report.   "I told them that the thief got my Vuarnet sunglasses, and I said 'I know that probably EVERYBODY says that their Vuarnet sunglasses were stolen, but mine really were!'"    Confused, I said "What the hell are Vuarnet sunglasses?"   She looked at me like I was stupid and said "Designer sunglasses that cost, like, $200.  Duh."

Whatever.   I buy $20 sunglasses from the drugstore.   No one wants to steal those.

[zolotiyeruki]

I've been spoiled by a low information diet. Normally we don't watch television, but we watched the Olympics this month which came with having to sit through commercials. What total crap we had to endure...

Same here.  We were able to watch the olympics via nbcolympics.com, so we didn't have to deal with the constant commercial breaks.  I understand that because of lower viewership this year, NBC actually had to ratchet up the number of advertisements to satisfy the advertisers.

Whatever.   I buy $20 sunglasses from the drugstore.   No one wants to steal those.

I'm partial to the tinted safety glasses from harbor freight that cost $2. They look good (IMO), they shade the sun, and they protect my eyes from stuff.

[Papa Mustache]

I've been spoiled by a low information diet. Normally we don't watch television, but we watched the Olympics this month which came with having to sit through commercials. What total crap we had to endure...

Same here.  We were able to watch the olympics via nbcolympics.com, so we didn't have to deal with the constant commercial breaks.  I understand that because of lower viewership this year, NBC actually had to ratchet up the number of advertisements to satisfy the advertisers.

Whatever.   I buy $20 sunglasses from the drugstore.   No one wants to steal those.

I'm partial to the tinted safety glasses from harbor freight that cost $2. They look good (IMO), they shade the sun, and they protect my eyes from stuff.

More commercials. That won't drive the people away will it?

HF sunglasses. Just buy them by the dozen. I got mine from Amazon but same idea. For $15-$20 I have a decade's worth. Recycle them when they are worn out.

[kudy]

The other night we were at a fancy brewery taproom to enjoy a few pints. We ended up talking a bit to this guy who was sitting alone... he immediately jumped into complaining about work and talking about how tired he was in his long career. He was probably in his late 50's or early 60's, and said he'd been at the same company for 40 years.

I suggested that maybe he could retire, and told him I was aiming to get out of the rat race as quick as I could. He scoffed at the suggestion, and rambled on about costs for his two college aged kids, travel to visit his kids every year, etc. He told me that he currently spends 100% of what he makes, and doesn't see that changing any time soon.

Eventually he revealed that he *is* planning to retire, and has a very clear path outlined with a spreadsheet and everything (wow, awesome!), but he's only got 2.5 million saved up, so he has a ways to go still. I about fell off my chair... this guy was so unhappy, but felt obligated to continue to work, even with a huge stache. I hope for his sake he eventually sees the wisdom in reducing his lifestyle a tiny bit and leaving work ASAP.

[RetiredAt63]

Eventually he revealed that he *is* planning to retire, and has a very clear path outlined with a spreadsheet and everything (wow, awesome!), but he's only got 2.5 million saved up, so he has a ways to go still. I about fell off my chair... this guy was so unhappy, but felt obligated to continue to work, even with a huge stache. I hope for his sake he eventually sees the wisdom in reducing his lifestyle a tiny bit and leaving work ASAP.

4% of that is $100,000, so even after taxes it is a tidy sum.  US dollars even (almost $130,000/year Canadian).  Once the kids are finished school that expense disappears.  He is set! 

[nnls]

A funny thing happened on the weekend and this seems like the perfect place to talk about it.

I was in line with about 400 other people to see one of the funniest plays I've ever seen.  The line snaked past a bar and one of the regulars was standing outside smoking and making fun of all the people standing in line for the play.  She made a comment along the lines of how ridiculous it was for us to waste our lives standing in this line.  This from a person who spends most of her life standing outside in all kinds of shitty weather sucking on a tube of tobacco. 

So I calculated how much of her life was wasted smoking cigarettes not to mention how much money she has literally sent up in smoke.  If a former coworker was anything to go by...he would spend 15 minutes of every hour smoking...so that's ten cigarettes that I saw (I'm sure there were more per day)...so that is 912 hours per year standing outside smoking!   I have no idea what cigarettes cost but that's a lot of dough up in smoke.

Google tells me that three are 200 cigs in a carton and a brand name carton of cigs costs roughly $40.

depends where you are, here in Australia a 20 pack of cigarettes costs about $22

[MgoSam]

I've got another one from the gym. I was talking to the same guy as earlier and he mentioned going to each Vikings home game, I was curious as to prices because it's a new stadium and generally tickets go up. He said he paid a grand for the Packers game (first game at the stadium), don't know how much he paid for the other tickets but they can't be cheap....at least they aren't as much as the Packers game.

This is a guy that's commented about how ridiculous it is for someone to travel abroad. He's a great person and I love training with him, but I wish he got his head on right.

[Fishingmn]

I've got another one from the gym. I was talking to the same guy as earlier and he mentioned going to each Vikings home game, I was curious as to prices because it's a new stadium and generally tickets go up. He said he paid a grand for the Packers game (first game at the stadium), don't know how much he paid for the other tickets but they can't be cheap....at least they aren't as much as the Packers game.

This is a guy that's commented about how ridiculous it is for someone to travel abroad. He's a great person and I love training with him, but I wish he got his head on right.

That's crazy. I actually bought Vikings season tickets this year but waited until they had some with no seat license. Upper deck endzone are just $52/game/seat. My son bought a pair near mine and sold his Packers tickets and 2 others and made back all his money so he could see 7 other games for free.

I did meet a guy on the plane in September who was headed to Mpls from Boston. He bought Vikings season tickets for the first time and was flying to every game! Don't think he was super rich but just loved the Vikes even though he was from MA.