Run. Fast.
A note to myself on the 2 cures that fix what's broken and prevent what's coming, and cost nothing. Running and fasting.
Short answer
Running and fasting both fix and prevent, where most cures only do one. Running fixes the day in front of you and prevents the slow decline; it builds bone, moves lymph, and even once a week is tied to about 27% lower risk of dying early. Fasting is withholding, from a word that first meant to hold firm. Long fasts clear out excess, and in a study of 1,422 people fasting 4 to 21 days under medical supervision, weight, waist size, and blood pressure all dropped. Both cost nothing, and both teach that you can tell yourself no.
Key takeaways
- —Most cures either fix a problem or prevent one. Running and fasting do both.
- —Running works on the day in front of you and on the slow decline, and even once a week it is tied to about 27% lower risk of dying early.
- —Fasting is withholding, from a word that started out meaning to hold firm, and in a study of 1,422 people fasting up to 21 days under supervision, weight, waist size, and blood pressure all dropped.
- —Neither costs anything, and both teach the same lesson. You can tell yourself no and live.
Run. Fast.
I believe these 2 can solve so many problems.
A cast fixes. A helmet prevents. Neither one does the other's job.
These 2 do both.
Running is hard mentally, emotionally, physically, and sometimes spiritually. Every kind of hard it puts me through, it pays back in the same currency.
It fixes the day in front of me. The heavy head, the short temper, the body that's been sitting too long. A few miles in, most of it is gone, and I never know where it went.
And it prevents the slow stuff. It loads the bones until they get denser, and it moves the lymph, which has no heart of its own to push it. Even once a week, running is tied to about a quarter less risk of dying early.
Fasting is withholding.
Not a skipped breakfast. 3 days. 7. 21, and that one with a doctor watching.
The word started out meaning to hold firm, and that's what it builds.
It fixes the excess. Whatever I've let pile up, a long fast clears out. In the biggest study of long fasts, 1,422 people going up to 21 days came out lighter, with smaller waists and lower blood pressure.
And it prevents the softness that lets the excess back in. In the wilderness story, the 40-day fast comes first. The tempter shows up after, and finds nothing to work with.
Neither one costs a dollar. Fasting saves a few.
Both teach me the same thing. I can tell myself no and live.
Movement and not eating, to live better, longer.
What a crazy thought.